- 1.
Metro Broadcast and Wharf Cable warned
At its meeting held on June 8, the Broadcasting Authority (BA) received a progress report from the Television and Entertainment Licensing Authority on the mid- term review of the licence of Hong Kong Commercial Broadcasting Company Ltd (CRHK) and was generally pleased with the press coverage given to the results of the sound broadcasting survey.
A spokesman said BA was also happy with the attendance at the two public hearings: "The two public hearings held on May 9 and 18, 1995, were attended by more than 200 people with about 50 who stood up to speak and gave a point of view. A report on the public hearings will be published in due course."
BA is now studying the submissions from CRHK, the findings of the survey and the opinions collected at the public hearings. This information will be analysed and taken into account by BA in formulating its recommendations for submission to the Governor-in-Council in September this year.
During the meeting, BA had considered a number of complaints and decided to issue a serious warning to Metro Broadcast (MB) for the blatant breach of the Radio Code of Practice on Programme Standards in its programme "Kwok Talk" broadcast on FM Select on April 22.
The programme featured drug-taking and the conversations of the programme hostess with callers were found to have conveyed the message that drug-taking was acceptable.
"This is against the Programme Code which stipulates that addiction to drugs or narcotics should not be encouraged or presented as desirable or socially acceptable," the spokesman said.
This was the first time Metro Broadcast breached the code in question. While a first-time breach usually attracts a lesser sanction (eg advice), BA considered a serious warning to be appropriate in the present case in order to underline its strong disapproval of any message which might mislead the audience into underestimating the extremely harmful effect of drug-taking.
"In addition, the top management of Metro Broadcast had been made fully aware of the seriousness of the matter and had undertaken to take remedial steps to prevent recurrence. The BA would consider imposing a financial penalty in the event of any recurrence," the spokesman said.