''Hong Kong Connection'' (), formerly ''The Common Sense'', is a long-running

news News is information about current events. This may be provided through many different Media (communication), media: word of mouth, printing, Mail, postal systems, broadcasting, Telecommunications, electronic communication, or through the te ...

documentary A documentary film (often described simply as a documentary) is a nonfiction Film, motion picture intended to "document reality, primarily for instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". The American author and ...

television programme produced by Hong Kong public broadcaster

RTHK Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK) is the public broadcasting service of Hong Kong. GOW, the predecessor to RTHK, was established in 1928 as the first broadcasting service in Hong Kong. As a government department under the Commerce and Econom ...

. It mainly covers

Hong Kong politics Hong may refer to: Places *Høng, a town in Denmark *Hong Kong, a city and a special administrative region in China *Hong, Nigeria *Hong River in China and Vietnam *Lake Hong in China Surnames *Hong (Chinese surname) *Hong (Korean surname) O ...

economics Economics () is a behavioral science that studies the Production (economics), production, distribution (economics), distribution, and Consumption (economics), consumption of goods and services. Economics focuses on the behaviour and interac ...

education Education is the transmission of knowledge and skills and the development of character traits. Formal education occurs within a structured institutional framework, such as public schools, following a curriculum. Non-formal education als ...

disadvantaged The "disadvantaged" is a generic term for individuals or groups of people who: * Face special problems such as physical disability, physical or mental disorder, mental disability * Lack money or economic supportKingdom of Nepal: Economic and Soc ...

environmental protection Environmental protection, or environment protection, refers to the taking of measures to protecting the natural environment, prevent pollution and maintain ecological balance. Action may be taken by individuals, advocacy groups and governments. ...

mainland China "Mainland China", also referred to as "the Chinese mainland", is a Geopolitics, geopolitical term defined as the territory under direct administration of the People's Republic of China (PRC) in the aftermath of the Chinese Civil War. In addit ...

affairs,

international affairs International relations (IR, and also referred to as international studies, international politics, or international affairs) is an academic discipline. In a broader sense, the study of IR, in addition to multilateral relations, concerns al ...

, etc. The programme premiered on 5 March 1978.

History

Evolution of programs

At an early stage, Hong Kong Connection consisted mainly of

drama Drama is the specific Mode (literature), mode of fiction Mimesis, represented in performance: a Play (theatre), play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on Radio drama, radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a g ...

components. After several reforms, the program turned into a documentary-like current events program. In 2017,

released a 60 episodes program in

Chinese Chinese may refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people identified with China, through nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **Han Chinese, East Asian ethnic group native to China. **'' Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic ...

called The record of eras - Hong Kong Connection (The first episode and episode 51 are missing). The program reviewed the history of

Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...

using the thousands of stories from Hong Kong Connection, which has launched for more than 30 years. On 29 July 2019, ''Hong Kong Connection'' broadcast ''721 Yuen Long Nightmare'', introducing what happened in

2019 Yuen Long attack The 2019 Yuen Long attack, also known as the 721 incident, refers to a mob attack that occurred in Yuen Long, a town in the New Territories of Hong Kong, on the evening of 21 July 2019. It took place in the context of the 2019–2020 Hong K ...

. In the program, Hong Kong Connection's reporters reconstructed the timeline of the attack through collecting the

CCTV Closed-circuit television (CCTV), also known as video surveillance, is the use of closed-circuit television cameras to transmit a signal to a specific place on a limited set of monitors. It differs from broadcast television in that the signa ...

footage dated 21 July 2019. (video deleted, saved in

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American 501(c)(3) organization, non-profit organization founded in 1996 by Brewster Kahle that runs a digital library website, archive.org. It provides free access to collections of digitized media including web ...

) The video received more than 3 million views (Chinese version).

Controversies

Arrest of journalist investigating 2019 Yuen Long attack

On 3 November 2020, the

police The police are Law enforcement organization, a constituted body of Law enforcement officer, people empowered by a State (polity), state with the aim of Law enforcement, enforcing the law and protecting the Public order policing, public order ...

arrested freelance journalist Choy Yuk-ling, who filmed a Hong Kong Connection episode about the

. She was charged with misusing a government vehicle licensing database and making false statements to obtain information and records about car owners after trying to discover the owners of a few vehicles suspected of supplying weapons to the attackers who launched an indiscriminate attack on scores of people. The owners of cars were identified as rural village leaders. She checked a box to declare that the vehicle registration searches were for "other traffic and transport related matters". Other options available when accessing the database are "legal proceedings" and "sale and purchase of vehicle". While the previously available option "other purposes" had been scrapped, the magistrate said that Choy should have considered other means to obtain the information. The police dismissed allegations that the arrest was an attack on press freedom. Choy was found guilty on 22 April 2021 and fined HK$6,000. The

Foreign Correspondents Club Foreign Correspondents' Club is a group of clubs for foreign correspondents and other journalists. Some clubs are members only, and some are open to the public. In 1883 the first associations of foreign correspondents were founded in Paris: ''Synd ...

on 22 April strongly criticised the verdict as setting a "dangerous precedent" for "legal action against journalists for engaging in routine reporting".

Censorship

Following the 2019-2020 protests, the

pro-Beijing camp The pro-Beijing camp, pro-establishment camp or pro-China camp is a political alignment in Hong Kong which generally supports the policies of the Government of the People's Republic of China, Beijing central government and the Chinese Commun ...

and the

government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a State (polity), state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive (government), execu ...

have attacked

, accusing the station of bias. A new director of broadcasting, Patrick Li, took charge of RTHK in March 2021. The broadcaster has seen an exodus of senior staff, and censorship of RTHK documentaries has been on the rise. In May 2021, it was announced that old episodes of RTHK programmes would be deleted from the Internet, including old episodes of ''Hong Kong Connection''. In May 2021, it was reported that RTHK management had rejected proposed new episodes on the

and Hong Kong commemorations of the

Tiananmen Square massacre The Tiananmen Square protests, known within China as the June Fourth Incident, were student-led demonstrations held in Tiananmen Square in Beijing, China, lasting from 15 April to 4 June 1989. After weeks of unsuccessful attempts between t ...

. Paul Lee Yin-chit, who headed production of ''Hong Kong Connection'', subsequently resigned from RTHK.

Deletion of online videos

On 3 May 2021, numerous videos on the RTHK

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

and

Facebook Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta Platforms, Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andre ...

pages, including episodes of ''Hong Kong Connection'', were deleted. The deleted videos were all uploaded more than a year ago, and included ''721 Yuen Long Nightmare.'' A spokesperson for RTHK stated the measure aligned the policy of its social media platforms with its website, where only programmes from the past 12 months are viewable. However, the RTHK Programme Staff Union considered the videos as the common property of

Hongkongers Hongkongers (), Hong Kongers, Hong Kong citizens and Hong Kong people are demonyms that refer to a resident of Hong Kong, although they may also refer to others who were born and/or raised in the territory. The earliest inhabitants of Hon ...

, criticising the removal of videos as 'unreasonable' and 'unnecessary'.

Awards

Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union The Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union (ABU or APBU), formed in 1964, is a non-profit, professional association of broadcasting organisations. It currently has over 288 members in 57 countries and regions, reaching a potential audience of about 3 b ...

commendation, 1983 – for episode ''Nurses in Hongkong'' * International Film and Television Festival of New York, Silver Medal, 1983 – for episode ''Vietnamese Refugees'' * Human Rights Press Award, 2021 – for episode ''7.21 Who Owns the Truth''{{cite news , last1=Ho , first1=Kelly , title=RTHK's Yuen Long doc and BBC's Xinjiang reporting win Human Rights Press Awards , url=https://hongkongfp.com/2021/05/06/breaking-rthks-yuen-long-doc-and-bbcs-xinjiang-reporting-win-human-rights-press-award/ , work=Hong Kong Free Press , date=6 May 2021 , access-date=25 May 2021 , archive-date=25 May 2021 , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210525095357/https://hongkongfp.com/2021/05/06/breaking-rthks-yuen-long-doc-and-bbcs-xinjiang-reporting-win-human-rights-press-award/ , url-status=live

References

External links

RTHK Hong Kong Connection

721 Yuen Long Nightmare
Cantonese-language television shows Chinese English-language television shows 1978 Hong Kong television series debuts Current affairs shows