Police supporters urge force to warn, sue RTHK

Police supporters urge force to warn, sue RTHK

Altis Wong reports

Around 60 people joined a demonstration outside the police's headquarters in Wan Chai on Wednesday to show their support for the force and to condemn RTHK for poking fun at officers during last week's episode of the satirical show, Headliner.



Members of Justice Alliance, some wearing blue "I Love HK police" T-shirts, accused the programme of defaming the police when it joked that officers have hoarded protective equipment during the coronavirus outbreak.



The group's leader, Leticia Lee, said they have written to the Ombudsman calling for an investigation into the episode of the long-running TV programme.



The demonstrators also accused Civic Party lawmaker Kwok Ka-ki of "smearing" the police by calling them "black cops" during a social media webcast.



They said Police Commissioner Chris Tang should issue both Kwok and RTHK with warning letters, and he should sue the government department for "libel" if it doesn't issue a public apology.



Lee, who last year urged the police to "show no mercy" to extradition bill protesters, also warned that her group could escalate its action against the legislator and the public broadcaster, without giving any details.



On Tuesday, a similar number of people took part in a protest against RTHK organised by the Alliance in Support of Our Police Force. The crowd outside the government's headquarters accused the station of promoting hatred and "rebelling against Beijing".



Scores of complaints about the show were made to the Office of the Communications Authority, and the Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development on Tuesday urged RTHK to "strictly abide" by its charter.



Meanwhile, staff from Headliner posted a message on the show's Facebook page thanking people for their support.



They also echoed words Tang was seen saying in a video taken as he had dinner with a number of celebrities on Sunday: "As long as you give us the thumbs up, we'll continue to do our job to the best of our abilities".



The Headliner team's post had received some 197,000 thumbs up emojis by Wednesday lunchtime.