So last night RTHK held their music awards. Live broadcast on RTHK Radio2 and the website was updated live with the list of the winners.

We listened via the web, since the reception for Radio 2 here in the underlying islands is pathetic. This would have been great, but about half way through the show RTHK's website suffered a meltdown. 10 minutes or so. I had searches hitting here from the Netherlands looking for the place to check out the awards live, so I know it wasn't just a Hong Kong crowd listening to the show.

For those not following Hong Kong's news, the review of public broadcasting's function has not been limited to the US' PBS and UK's BBC, but has arisen here with Hong Kong's RadioTelevisionHongKong. Way back last spring during the "Chief Executive political campaign", Darth Bowtie made comments about reigning in RTHK and eliminating the popular entertainment programming that might obtain too many listeners without generating income for Hong Kong's tycoons. The first casualty was RTHK's broadcasts of horse racing, where the racing is so central to the city that it also has served as a political symbol of stability exploited by both the occupying Japanese in WW2 and post-handover Beijing apologists.

Last spring the journalists were also open about the long-standing criticism of some of RTHK's political programming, including a highly-popular program of political satire. I know the Liaison Office is so ridiculous that it is almost immune to political satire, but the CCP is full of thin-skinned Whiney Ass Titty Babies, who like to question other's patriotism, while getting their knickers all twisted when somebody criticises them.

So when yesterday's SCMP carried news of Emily Lau's critique of the review of RTHK, you could almost predict the sad sad sad response from Darth Bowtie's office.

But the broadside, by outspoken legislator Emily Lau Wai-hing, was swiftly dismissed as the "usual conspiracy theory" by the government.

When they call you a conspiracy theorist over widely known points of view, you know that you've found the truth. When the government talks about funding, they mean how come it isn't lining the pockets of Darth Bowtie's cronies. When the government talks about accountability, they mean how come the public broadcaster doesn't stick to parroting the government/Liaison Office's party line?

The review won't be looking at ensuring the proper funds are there to ensure the website won't go down next year during the music awards and given the statements about entertainment programming on RTHK, you might wonder about the future of the awards all together.