The new head of Hong Kong’s public broadcaster received vocal support from Chief Executive Carrie Lam amid his disputed decision to pull multiple television programs from broadcast.

Lam on Tuesday backed Patrick Li, who was appointed to helm Radio Television Hong Kong on March 1. On Monday, the station said it had axed three episodes, including one in an award-winning documentary series, for containing inaccuracies and lacking impartiality.

“Since taking office, [Li] has been very conscientious and doing exactly what I expect from the editor-in-chief of the RTHK,” Lam told reporters.

RTHK was a government department and must follow rules and regulations set out in its charter, Lam said. As director of broadcasting, Li would be held responsible for whatever programs that breached the rules, she added.

“That’s why [Li] has to be very cautious, and I have to recognize what he has done.”

Li has been criticized for shelving a number of planned programs less than a month after he took over from the previous RTHK chief, who suddenly resigned in the wake of a critical government review that claimed bias and poor editorial controls at the broadcaster.

The three affected TV episodes are from current affairs programs “Hong Kong Connection,” “Hong Kong Stories” and “Legco Review.”

An RTHK source told Apple Daily that management did not explain to its own journalists why their programs were axed. The station also withheld clarification on its new “referral mechanism,” which required journalists to submit production plans for evaluation.

RTHK also suspended other shows featuring celebrities with pro-democracy views, although the celebrities did not discuss politics on camera, the source added.

The RTHK did not address this point in its Monday statement, saying only that it was immune from political influence.

“The main reasons for these programs to be suspended from broadcasting were that while the topics featured in the programs concerned were contentious, the programs were not impartial, unbiased and accurate,” the statement read.

The RTHK Programme Staff Union rejected the explanation and said that management were vague about what they found to be unacceptable. The “Hong Kong Connection” episode, originally scheduled to air on Monday, explored student activism in universities under the current political climate.

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