Journalism students from local universities have been rejected from TVB News’ summer internship programme. Staff from Baptist University, Shue Yan University and Chinese University confirmed with HK01 that their journalism students had not been accepted as interns.

TVB Newsroom. File photo: Wikicommons.

Shue Yan University Head of Department of Journalism and Communication Leung Tin-wai told Apple Daily that their students did not even get an interview.

TVB said that the arrangement to split the eight intern places equally between Hong Kong and mainland university students is the usual practice. The company did not confirm the rejection of local journalism students to Apple Daily but said that the interview process for the internship had been partially completed.

Last year, TVB News took on four local students for its internship programme, but at least two of them were not journalism students, HK01 reported.

A ‘very sad thing’

Hong Kong Journalists Association (HKJA) Chairperson Sham Yee-lan told Apple Daily that news media had independent decision-making power, but should not forget Hong Kong students.

HKJA vice Chairperson Shirley Yam also said that local news media should allocate intern places for local journalism students. “Do mainland students know Hong Kong better than Hong Kong students?” she asked. She also said that “it would be a very sad thing” if local journalism students could not practise journalism in Hong Kong.

The news sparked much debate online, with one netizen saying, “when TVB stops taking local students, the number of students applying to journalism will fall, or even plummet.”