Local broadcaster TVB has apologised to the Democratic Party for wrongly reporting that the party had rejected part of the Route 10 proposal – a plan to connect Lantau Island to Tuen Mun as a substitute road to the airport. It follows the Kap Shui Mun bridge collision last Friday night which halted traffic for over an hour.

On October 24, the day after the accident, TVB reported that in the 2002 Legislative Council term the Democratic Party had opposed the new development.” At the time, the DAB Party and the Liberal Party did not feel the need for the new road, the Civic Party and the Democratic Party also opposed it,” the report said.

However, the Democratic Party had in fact voted yes to the proposal. They demanded TVB clarify their statement.

TVB apologised to the Democratic Party. File Photo: Wikicommons and Apple Daily.

Democratic Party lawmaker Sin Chung-kai received a reply from TVB on Wednesday. “The TVB news department apologises to the Democratic Party for the news story – we will urge our staff to verify the content of reports carefully,” Ming Pao reported TVB as saying.

TVB also said the incorrect version of the report has been deleted from its online news portal after the mistake was discovered. A correct version ran on TVB’s interactive iNews channel at 10:00pm, and on the late night news at 11:00pm.

The report was also wrong about the Civic Party – which did not exist in 2002 and was only founded in 2006.

The DAB also demanded TVB clarify their statement. The party opposed the construction of other parts of the road, but not the Lantau to Tuen Mun part. TVB has yet to reply to the DAB.