Television channel TVB is to stop airing the political debate programme City Forum, a weekly mainstay that has been broadcast live on the channel for 36 years. The programme is produced by RTHK and is known for inviting prominent figures, lawmakers, and academics from different sides to discuss contemporary issues. It takes place at at a public venue, usually Causeway Bay’s Victoria Park, every Sunday.
City Forum will still be broadcast on RTHK digital and analogue channels 31 and 31A. TVB and RTHK have been broadcasting the show after RTHK took over ATV’s analogue channels in April after the beleaguered broadcasting company’s license expired.
Amen Ng Man-yee, head of RTHK’s Corporate Communications Unit, told Ming Pao that the new arrangements were made as RTHK now has its own channels and broadcasting laws did not stipulate that TVB must give RTHK broadcasting time on Sundays.
Other programmes from RTHK, such as LegCo Review and the political satire programme Headliner will also be broadcast one hour earlier at 6pm. Ng told Ming Pao that as said that as TVB’s prime time begins at 6pm, the new arrangements also follow broadcasting rules.
The English edition of The Hong Kong Connection, which airs on Pearl every Thursday, is on programme break until October. It is not known whether the programme will also see a shift in time slot.
