Hong Kong free-to-air broadcasters to now carry patriotic shows only

Hong Kong regulators have ordered local free-to-air TV and radio broadcasters to carry 30 minutes of national education and identity and National Security Law programming each week. It will affect both the country’s dominant free-to-air TV broadcasters – Television Broadcasts (TVB) and ViuTV – as well as radio stations Commercial Radio and Metro Broadcast.

Hong Kong’s Communications Authority said in a statement, “On top of the existing required broadcast hours of current affairs programmes under the category ‘current affairs,’ licensees shall also broadcast no less than 30 minutes of programmes on national education, national identity and National Security Law per week.”

The National Security Law was imposed on Hong Kong by the mainland Chinese government in June 2020, following a year of pro-democracy protests.

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The law criminalises “subversion, secession, collusion with foreign forces and terrorist acts”. In the wake of the law’s introduction, several Hong Kong media outlets have been shut down.