RTHK set to air CCTV Channel 9 programs

Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK) announced on Monday that it will launch three TV channels, one of which will broadcast programs produced by Channel 9 of the China Central Television (CCTV), triggering debate in Hong Kong over whether the broadcasting is "politically motivated."

RTHK will begin trial broadcasts of new RTHK channels 31, 32 and 33, on January 13, 2014, with them expected to be in full service by 2018, Sze Wing-yuen, assistant director of TV and Corporate Business, RTHK, said at a press briefing.

Channel 33 will relay CCTV's documentary platform, Channel 9, round the clock.

Starting operation in 2011, CCTV 9 shows many self-produced documentaries, ranging from geography, social reality and history. Some of them, like A Bite of China, had been aired in Hong Kong before.

RTHK's decision to broadcast CCTV programs has triggered a debate in Hong Kong with some people questioning if it was "politically motivated."

"Hong Kong's society is free yet complicated. Some people with political prejudice tend to politicize everything they see. As a matter of fact, the CCTV represents another opinion just like the rest of the media outlets," Zhang Dinghuai, a professor at the Contemporary Chinese Politics Research Institute of Shenzhen University, told the Global Times on Thursday.

"The debate shows that some people in Hong Kong still refuse to recognize the subordinate relation between China and Hong Kong Special Administrative Region," said Zhang.

Sze also said RTHK will follow its guideline of "editorial independence and express views without fear or favor."