Communication and respect between management and staff were already lacking before Hong Kong’s largest pay television operator, i-Cable, dropped a bombshell this week to lay off dozens of news staffers, said an editor who was let go in the redundancy exercise.

“The management has never communicated with us,” said Linda Wong, who was an assistant China news editor before Tuesday, the day 40 journalists were fired along with 60 colleagues from other departments. “All rumors were relayed to us from the outside.”

Wong, speaking in a Commercial Radio interview on Wednesday, said the management was showing disrespect for the editorial department by failing to consult team supervisors before deciding on the layoffs.

The broadcaster had said its exercise was meant to save operating costs as the pandemic had dealt a blow to its finances. But Wong, whose departure prompted the resignation of the entire China team on the same day, doubted that the strained financial position was the true motive.

She noted how, with many employees on no-pay leave, the company hired four management staffers who turned out “not to have really contributed anything concrete” since they assumed office in August and September. It was conceivable that the redundancies were politically motivated, Wong said.

The new management team had questionable editorial judgement, she added. One of them, former TVB anchor Hui Fong-fai, had asked the China team to include in its coverage the view that state-assigned lawyers might be able to help 12 Hong Kong youths detained in mainland China, she said.

Hui also asked why they did not send any reporter to cover a press conference conducted by China’s Foreign Affairs Ministry, given that TVB, the broadcaster considered to be more pro-Beijing, had it broadcast live.

“If I were to follow whatever TVB did, then I wouldn’t be working for i-Cable,” Wong said.

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