Beijing loyalists in the Hong Kong legislature have urged the government to punish staffers of public broadcaster RTHK for an allegedly biased news report.

The report, published in January, said that residents of a locked-down area in Jordan received canned food from government officers but not can openers. It drew complaints of skewed and unprofessional coverage from establishment figures, including former chief executive Leung Chun-ying and Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions president Stanley Ng.

They said that the residents had received cans with a pull ring, so openers were not needed. Radio Television Hong Kong has since defended its reporting and condemned the complaints as smearing attempts.

On Wednesday, FTU lawmaker Michael Luk asked commerce secretary Edward Yau at a Legislative Council meeting for progress on the government’s investigation into the matter.

In response, Yau said the report had attracted 548 complaints but added that it was normal for members of the public to hold different opinions over news reports.

Luk slammed Yau for skirting the question, and said he did not want RTHK to become like the BBC, “which specializes in doing fake news to smear China and Hong Kong for its political goals.” Luk asked the minister if he believed RTHK could maintain fairness in its coverage.

Yau replied that RTHK had pulled its program and apologized after receiving the criticism. He acknowledged that, unlike other government departments, the public broadcaster faced inadequacies in handling complaints on its own. The government would continue to monitor the station, while the RTHK board of advisers would also provide advice on fair reporting, he added.

Retail-sector lawmaker Shiu Ka-fai of the Liberal Party claimed that RTHK was prejudiced in its reports about the police, and asked if the government intended to fix the station’s issues or shut it down.

Yau said that although RTHK had its problems, there was value in its existence. It had done well in some areas, he said.

RTHK is a frequent target of the pro-establishment camp as its reporters tend to ask tough questions at official press conferences. The station had a new director this month, career bureaucrat Patrick Li, who had no journalistic experience. Since he took office, the embattled broadcaster has seen several of its programs being pulled off air, including interviews of people whom the government does not like.

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