In response to media enquiries regarding an open letter from a group of members of the RTHK Programme Advisory Panel to the Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development, a spokesman for the Commerce and Economic Development Bureau (CEDB) said the following today (December 27):

     As a government department, Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK) has been allocated resources through the Government's resource allocation mechanism to provide public service broadcasting. 

     The Government has pointed out on several occasions that the cumulative total amount of expenditure of RTHK in the past nine years has increased by more than two times (117 per cent), which is higher than the cumulative increase of the Government's recurrent expenditure of the same period. RTHK's civil service posts also recorded an increase of more than 40 per cent. RTHK should thus have sufficient resources to meet operational needs.

     As the Director of Broadcasting has pointed out at an earlier meeting of the Legislative Council Panel on Information Technology and Broadcasting, RTHK has been allocated resources under the established mechanism and the CEDB has been supportive of RTHK's requests for resources.

     RTHK of course should make effective use of resources to ensure proper use of public money.

     In fact, amid the social unrest in Hong Kong over the past six months, all government departments and public servants in different grades must perform their roles dutifully and make extra efforts in order to maintain effective public services.

Ends/Friday, December 27, 2019
Issued at HKT 19:20

NNNN