| Code | 1013F |
| Title | Cable TV and SARS Reporting |
| Author | Tak Hung FUNG |
| Affiliation | Hong Kong Cable Television Limited |
| Abstract |
SARS came at a time when the Gulf War was still at its peak. Cable News, like the rest of the community, was caught totally unprepared. Workload, planning, logistics, manpower resources, equipments had all needed to be double up. The only thing we could do was to stretch resources to the extreme limit in order to provide the audience with the most up-to-date information of the deadly virus.
As a 24 hour news channel, we focused on relaying information in the quickest way, broadcasting live press conferences, expert comments, complaints, reactions, and figures whenever possible. The daily live coverage of the Health Department's briefing at 4:30 became the main source of information for a lot of people in the community. There were a lot more we could have done. We could have gone more in-depth, for example, into the situation of the hospitals and revealed the risk of medical staff. We just hope that there will be no next time and we do not have to do better. |