This press release summarises the Communications Authority ("CA")'s decisions following its 51st meeting in April 2016:
Breach of Licence Condition by Hong Kong Cable Television Limited ("HKCTV")
The CA decided that HKCTV was in breach of Condition 10.1 of its domestic pay television programme service licence in failing to seek the requisite approval of the CA before implementing a series of changes to its shareholding structure during the 12-year period from 30 September 2003 to 2 November 2015. The CA considered that it was incumbent upon HKCTV, as a licensee, to comply with the relevant regulatory requirement and exercise reasonable care and due diligence to seek the CA's prior approval before the completion of the shareholding changes. While HKCTV attributed the non-compliance to inadvertent oversight of its former staff, the CA considered that such an oversight also reflected a serious lapse on the part of the management of HKCTV. Taking into account the duration, severity and nature of the breach, the precedents and HKCTV's representations, the CA decided that HKCTV should be seriously warned to observe the relevant licence condition more closely.
Broadcast Complaint
The CA also considered three complaint cases in respect of the broadcasters' non-compliance with the Generic Code of Practice on Television Programme Standards ("TV Programme Code") -
complaints against Radio Television Hong Kong ("RTHK")'s television programme "Pentaprism" (左右紅藍綠) broadcast on the Jade Channel of Television Broadcasts Limited ("TVB") on 3 August 2015. The CA decided that RTHK should be strongly advised to observe more closely the relevant provisions in the TV Programme Code;
complaints against the television programmes "Late News" (晚間新聞) broadcast on the I News Channel of TVB on 22 November 2015 and "Overnight News" (深宵新聞報道) broadcast on the I News Channel of TVB and TVBN Channel of TVB Network Vision Limited ("TVBNV") on 23 November 2015. The CA decided that both TVB and TVBNV should be strongly advised to observe more closely the relevant provision in the TV Programme Code; and
a complaint against the television programme "Scoop" (東張西望) broadcast on the Jade Channel of TVB on 14 October 2015. The CA decided that TVB should be advised to observe more closely the relevant provisions in the TV Programme Code.
Details of the above cases are at Appendix.
Communications Authority
Secretariat
19 April 2016