The Demise of ATV

ATV's offices in Tai Po in the New Territories

It's finally happened -- ATV or Asia Television is finally shutting down tomorrow.

In the last few years the local TV station has had major financial problems and mainland businessmen have tried to prop it up with injections of a few million dollars here and there.

But this time it wasn't enough and a High Court judge ruled that Deloitte, the provisional liquidator, could go ahead and shut down the company.

ATV's archives include footage from the 1967 riots...

Deloitte is acting on behalf of major creditor Wong Ching, ATV's former boss, who sold his stake to mainland investor Si Bin; Si still owes HK$1.8 billion to Wong, and so he wants the assets sold off to get his money back.

Meanwhile staff weren't being paid their wages, and a few weeks ago some left because they hadn't been paid and can legally quit after not receiving their pay after a period of time.

While the government is assisting the employees in finding new jobs and getting any kind of compensation they can get, there is no word yet on what will happen to ATV's archives.

... the Sino-British Joint Declaration in 1984...

It was Hong Kong's first TV station and has 60 years' worth of history, including the 1967 riots, the arrest on corruption charges of police chief superintendent Peter Godber, the construction of the MTR and the negotiations of the Sino-British Joint Declaration for Hong Kong's return to China. There's also an exclusive scoop interview with Lee Lai-shan, the windsurfer who won Hong Kong's first-ever gold medal in the 1996 Olympics.

The government doesn't seem to care what happens to these archives which is dismaying to hear, and hopefully someone with the passion and resources can look after them.

They hold Hong Kong's history and we need to keep these things to remember the past as accurately as possible to hold people -- particularly those in office -- accountable.

... and Lee Lai-shan's jubilant Olympic gold win in 1996

While I don't miss ATV per se, it's the archives that I'm most concerned about. They represent 60 years' worth of work that should not be thrown out and forgotten.

Shying from Public Interest

The Hong Kong government is trying to sweep this incident under the carpet

At the beginning of April I wrote about the Hong Kong government is doing a terrible job archiving documents and how it was criticized by Archives Action Group chairman William Waung Sik-ying.

Well, he's at it again -- this time blasting the government on not wanting to release the full report into the Lamma ferry disaster in 2012 that killed 39 people.

The government only issued a summary of the 430-page report and did not give names of who were responsible for the collision.

Waung, a retired High Court judge, believes the victims and relatives of those killed could demand the full release of the report that will put pressure on officials to give a full public account. He said it was a matter of public interest.

"The government is quite incredibly still trying to avoid the evil day and is desperate to minimize its responsibility into the whole affair," he said. "I am disturbed... the government is taking the extraordinary position of not releasing the report, which is of course a matter of public interest."

Last year as the head of Archives Action Group, he lodged a complaint with the ombudsman arguing for better management of Marine Department records, and criticized comments by Secretary for Justice Rimsky Yuen Kwok-keung, who stressed confidentiality.

"The government's excuse of trying not the jeopardize possible future proceedings against the civil servants just does not wash," Waung said.

The report identifies 17 marine officials, including those at the directorate level, could be guilty of misconduct and "suspected criminality". The report has been passed on to the police for further investigation, and it also criticized the Marine Department's management for "highly unsatisfactory" record keeping.

Nevertheless the summary did not reveal the names of those possibly liable. The relatives are asking lawmakers to invite the powers and privileges laws of the Legislative Council to demand full disclosure.

Waung said the relatives may possibly get the full report by seeking legal aid and then launching a civil law suit against the government.

It has taken almost two years for the government to come out with this 430-page report -- and yet the public doesn't get to know exactly what happened and who is to blame. It has completely downplayed this tragic incident because it is to blame. But we as taxpayers have the right to know.

Hopefully the relatives will take Waung's advice and push the government to force its hand and reveal why this report is so sensitive that the public does not need to know.

What was supposed to be a happy occasion -- watching the National Day fireworks on a boat in Victoria Harbour turned into a disaster. We read stories of how children and people died, unable to evacuate the ferry fast enough because it was sinking so fast.

We need to know what happened and who is responsible so that we can try to ensure this does not happen again.

Surely the government does not want this incident repeated?

Moving Further from the Truth

When the government moved offices, records 1,000 metres tall were destroyed

The Hong Kong government doesn't seem too keen to let us citizens know how we are being governed or perhaps misgoverned.

That's because it has made no effort to keep good records of its administration of the city, nor does it want to pass an archive law to protect existing and future documents.

Archives Action Group chairman William Waung Sik-ying blasted the government yesterday at a press conference, saying it behaves as if it is ashamed.

"We have the most inefficient government because it doesn't place any value on good records management. It doesn't have the people. It doesn't have the resources. It doesn't have the will," he said.

Waung went on to say the government "gives the impression of what it is doing, and therefore wants the whole world and Hong Kong people to forget about what it is doing."

An Ombudman's report into the appalling state of government archives drew attention to the large-scale destruction of documents, and not giving enough time to Government Records Services enough resources to vet and archive documents.

The report confirms what the group observed many years ago and repeats the Director of Audit's reports released over two years ago.

Waung, who chairs the Archives Action Group is a former High Court judge and includes another judge and archive experts. The group tried to help the process along by drafting an archive law four years ago, but nothing has been done.

The Archive Action Group says it best

Despite criticisms, the government continues to repeat its vague statement that it is taking "administrative measures" to address criticism of its dealing with archives. It referred the matter to the Law Reform Commission in June last year, which means it will probably be forgotten in the long list of things to look over and so by that time all the key decision makers will have left the civil service.

It was only last year that a paper was presented to the Legislative Council's panel on administration of justice and legal services, that said how long it took for the government to implement recommendations by the commission -- the average was five years, the longest 14.

Waung said the matter did not need to be referred to the commission, but instead the draft archive bill should be tabled in Legco and debated.

He explained that Hong Kong is going through a period of tremendous turmoil over political reform and this was generating lots of discussion within the government, but no system in place to record this for posterity.

In addition, Waung said, government officials might act differently if they knew what they said and did was being preserved in properly-kept archives.

"This is not just a question of records about a cultural heritage. It's also about our political future, about the well-being of our children, about the shape of the society we want to have. That's why it is so important to create proper records," he said.

May we remind readers of when the government moved offices to the strange black upside-down U-shaped building at Tamar, documents stacked up over 1,000 metres high were destroyed.

We have no idea what were in these documents and why they weren't preserved one way or another. All we know is that the government doesn't seem to care and has just deemed these tons of precious information unnecessary.

Perhaps Waung should have added that the government doesn't want to keep proper records because it doesn't want to be accountable for its actions because an archive law would put its feet to the fire.