Once a convenient target of attacks from prominent pro-Beijing figures, RTHK has been enjoying some respite in recent years.
Although the views of one of its phone-in show hosts and the contents of some public affairs programmes have occasionally caused unease among government and Beijing loyalists, the strain in relations between RTHK and pro-Beijing circles and government has eased remarkably.
Yet hopes that RTHK would be controversy-free have proved to be short-lived. A public affairs programme, Legco Review, was in the news when the head of a pro-Beijing think-tank challenged remarks by the programme host in a report on the 20th anniversary of the June 4 crackdown. In a live broadcast of the candle-light vigil in Victoria Park, the host said: 'After three decades of struggle, the democratic movement in Eastern Europe bore fruit in 1989. If the year 1989 marks the beginning of democracy in China, people need to keep going resolutely and steadily in the years ahead.'
The report carried interviews with a former Tiananmen student leader and mainlanders who faced restrictions in holding commemorative activities on the mainland. There was footage of the collapse of regimes in the Eastern European communist bloc.
In an article published in the Chinese-language Hong Kong Economic Times, Cheung Chi-kong, executive director of the One Country Two Systems Economic Research Centre, warned against direct interference in the mainland's political system.
Mr Cheung said the comments by the radio show host seemed to suggest the Communist regime would also probably be brought down like those former East European regimes. He questioned whether the remarks represented the anti-communist wish of the host or the anti-communist stance of RTHK.
