Asia Television's reformist chief executive Ricky Wong Wai-kay was edged out of the station's leadership in a day of high drama just 12 days after taking up the highly publicized post. But in a dramatic turn of events, Wong's spokeswoman last night issued a written statement through his office at Citi Telecom that he does not plan to resign, and has not been not notified by ATV of any such development. The statement added that "the resignation does not exist." ATV executive chairman Linus Cheung Wing-lam earlier broke the news that Wong had resigned as he announced an independent investigation into discrepancies in the results of the 2008 Miss Asia Pageant. Cheung cited irreconcilable difference between them on management style for Wong's departure. "I have great respect and admiration for Wong's integrity and talent," Cheung said. "In fact, Wong was recommended by me ... to join ATV. "Most unfortunately, an irreconcilable difference in management style developed." Wong's vow to transform ATV has sparked a flurry of controversies inside the station. At internal meetings, he told staff about his plan to drop the "TVB way of doing business" while gearing up for infotainment. The news section also came under pressure to be slashed by more than half after Lunar New Year. Meanwhile, Cheung revealed there were discrepancies in the final vote tallies of the beauty pageant and that an independent committee has been set up to investigate the scandal. Bowing low, Cheung said: "I am deeply sorry." Hong Kong's Eunis Yao, 23, was declared winner on December 7, followed by Belinda Yan of Toronto and Taiwan's Lene Lai. A source disclosed that those who voted by internet or SMS who, for the first time, had the power to decide the winners as opposed to the traditional panel of judges - had voted differently to the final results. The voters were mainland dominated, and the emergence of a Hong Kong winner raised eyebrows, the source said. That incident could have been the trigger for yesterday's dramatic developments, the source said. Without going into detail, Cheung said Wong had informed him of the discrepancies. Wong had earlier requested a report from relevant staff and this was submitted five days after the pageant was aired. Wong had discovered voters' tallies were different than the results announced on television. Based on "principles of sincerity, equity and justice," Cheung said the company decided to set up an independent committee to investigate the matter. The investigation will take about two months, and will be conducted by KS Kwong, former secretary for information technology and broadcasting, Professor Andrew CF Chan, a committee member of the Electoral Affairs Commission, and Johnson Cha, a director of ATV. But president of the Sports Federation and Olympic Committee of Hong Kong Timothy Fok Tsun-ting, who was in charge of overseeing voting results, was in no way responsible for the incident, Cheung stressed. Cheung said it would have been unacceptable "if we waited two months before disclosing [the scandal] to the public." "Wong's resignation is not in any way connected to the Miss Asia incident," he added. Source: The Standard Credit: wChaU1 @ AF forum
