Citizens' Radio (Chinese: 民間電台) is a radio station in Hong Kong established by pro-democracy camp figure Tsang Kin Shing (曾健成). The station is run as a non-profit organization. It started trial broadcasting on 3 October 2005 on 102.8 MHz FM. The regular broadcasting hours are 7:00 pm–8:00 pm from Monday to Friday. The programmes can be heard in parts of Hong Kong Island, most of Kowloon, and on the Internet.
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The principle of the station is "Be open and bravely speak out", so the main type of programming is a speech-based "phone-in" format. Sometimes Hong Kong legislators are invited as special guests. The station has also made live broadcasts of the Hong Kong 1 July marches and Vindicate 4 June and Relay Torch in the past.
Tsang has submitted an application for a sound broadcasting licence to the Broadcasting Authority, but the application is still pending. So technically speaking Citizens Radio's broadcasts are illegal. On 29 August 2006 with the court search warrant, the Office of the Telecommunications Authority forced the station to close down. But the station resumed broadcasting on 4 October 2006. The station has been repeatedly raided by the Telecommunications Authority since but it kept on broadcasting as a form of civil disobedience.
On 25 May 2007 Szeto Wah was speaking in a Mong Kok pedestrianised street hosted by Citizen's Radio. The topic of the programme involved the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre.[1]
| “ | I appeared as a guest speaker at a Citizens' Radio forum in the Mong Kok pedestrian zone on 25 May. The topic was the June 4 incident.[1] | ” |
Eight people including Szeto Wah were prosecuted.[2] According to the summons, Szeto was using unlicensed radio equipment when delivering the political message. Only the chief executive or the director general of the Telecommunications Authority have the power to approve licences for such equipment.
Szeto said he was discriminated against for this event, and had appeared on the same station before without being charged.[1] Other members who have spoken on the radio station included Anthony Cheung Bing Leung and legislator Choy So-yuk of the pro-Beijing Democratic Alliance for the Betterment of Hong Kong. They were not charged.[1][2] Leung Kwok-hung (Longhair) added that this is "selective prosecution". Mak Yin-ting (麥燕婷), general secretary of the Hong Kong Journalists Association have said "Everything is subject to government discretion. The government can grant or deny you a license as long as it wishes. It is not in accordance with the rule of law."[3]
After the prosecution, Hong Kong's Secretary for Justice Wong Yan Lung (黃仁龍) slumped to a six-month low in public confidence.[4]
The latest case follows an ongoing lawsuit in which Tsang and Leung are arguing that the Telecommunications Ordinance, specifically the granting of broadcasting licences, was unconstitutional.[5]
| English name (jyutping or pinyin depending on media coverage) |
Chinese name | Representing |
|---|---|---|
| Lee Cheuk-yan | 李卓人 | Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions |
| Emily Lau Wai-hing | 劉慧卿 | The Frontier |
| Lee Wing-tat | 李永達 | Democratic party |
| Fernando Cheung | 張超雄 | Civic Party |
| Albert Chan | 陳偉業 | Association for Democracy and People's Livelihood |
| Leung Kwok-hung | 梁國雄 | League of Social Democrats |
| Tsang Kin-shing | 曾健成 | Activists, founder of station |
| Lo Hom-chau | 羅就 | Activists |
| Yang Kuang | 楊匡 | Activists |
| Ko Wah-bing | 柯華 | Activists |
| Poon Tat-keung | 潘達強 | Activists |
The Office of the Telecommunications Authority (OFTA) mounted an enforcement operation against Citizens' Radio and raided the radio equipment on 19 December 2008.[12] Activist Tsang Kin-shing said the equipment was worth HK$20,000 to HK$30,000.[13]