The Commerce & Economic Development Bureau said Radio Television Hong Kong has been allocated sufficient resources and the bureau has been supportive of RTHK's requests for resources.

The bureau made the statement today in response to media enquiries regarding an open letter from members of the RTHK Programme Advisory Panel.

As a government department, RTHK has been allocated resources through the Government's resource allocation mechanism to provide public service broadcasting, the bureau said.

The Government has pointed out on several occasions that the cumulative total amount of expenditure of RTHK in the past nine years has increased by more than two times or 117%, which is higher than the cumulative increase of the Government's recurrent expenditure of the same period. RTHK's civil service posts also recorded an increase of more than 40%.

The statement noted RTHK should thus have sufficient resources to meet operational needs.

As the Director of Broadcasting has pointed out at an earlier meeting of the Legislative Council Panel on Information Technology & Broadcasting, RTHK has been allocated resources under the established mechanism.

The bureau stressed that RTHK should make effective use of its resources to ensure proper use of public money.

In fact, amid the social unrest in Hong Kong over the past six months, all government departments and public servants must perform their roles dutifully and make extra effort to maintain effective public services, it added.