The public telecaster Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK) has now fired its journalist Nabela Qoser after a months-long dispute over editorial independence. The outspoken journalist became quite infamous at the channel as she had questioned the city’s officials while the demonstrations across the international financial hub took place back in 2019.
Qoser, for instance, questioned the Chief Executive of the city, Carrie Lam, at a 3 a.m. press conference that followed after a mob attacked the Yuen Long metro station, which was later referred to as the 721 attack. “You went out to talk to the citizens at four in the morning, but where were you last night,” was her question to the city’s key official.
Born in Hong Kong and of Pakistani ethnicity, Qoser can speak fluent Cantonese. She rose to prominence for asking tough questions; her questioning in the press briefing after the 2019 Yuen Long attack had gained her immediate fame and popularity.
That said, her critics complained that Qoser was acting biased, which ended up becoming the state’s complaint as well, resulting in a number of key changes within the broadcasting channel. Starting from management to editorial changes, quite a lot happened in Radio Television Hong Kong.
When approached by a local news outlet about Qoser being sacked from the broadcasting channel, RTHK declined to offer any comments and said that no comments would be made on such individual cases.
Qoser, this Monday, has been asked to quit and leave her position before the month ends.
Apart from the controversy surrounding firing Qoser, RTHK also got trapped in another fresh controversy for deleting shows that were uploaded more than a year ago on their Facebook accounts and YouTube channels.
