RTHK debate show City Forum ‘to end’

It is understood that RTHK’s City Forum won’t resume this month following the summer break.

The weekly live debate show, which invites guests to discuss topical issues with an audience asking questions, began airing in 1980.

Its last episode was held on July 18 and focused on the regulation of disposable plastic tableware.

It had been a regular Sunday fixture in either Victoria Park or Carpenter Road Park, until it switched indoors due to the pandemic.

An RTHK spokesperson said its programming and staffing arrangements were internal editorial matters and that the station wouldn’t comment.

A programmes advisor for RTHK, David Ho, also declined to comment on what he described as “normal programming rearrangements”, when he was asked about the show on the sidelines of an event.

The RTHK Programme Staff Union, meanwhile, warned that cancelling the show would “severely affect” RTHK’s fulfilment of its mission to provide “an open platform for the free exchange of views without fear or favour”, as stated in its charter.