10
-
Surveillance on obscene and indecent articles be stepped up
1995 was an eventful year for the Television and Entertainment Licensing Authority (TELA), the Commissioner for Television and Entertainment Licensing. Mr PT Cheung, said today (Friday).
He said that during the year, TELA in its capacity as the executive arm of the Broadcasting Authority, organised a mid-term review of Commercial Radio Hong Kong, completed the licence renewal exercise for ATV and TVB, and introduced new codes of practice aimed at improving the services of the licensees.
Through the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding, Radio Television Hong Kong also voluntarily committed itself to meeting programme standards set by the Broadcasting Authority in the same manner as other broadcasting licensees.
Mr Cheung was speaking at a press conference reviewing TELA's work in the year 1995.
On film censorship, in November 1995, the film classification system was further refined by introducing two sub-divisions, Category IIA (not suitable for children) and Category IIB (not suitable for young persons and children). By the same exercise, advertising materials for Category III films such as posters and newspaper advertisements are now subject to prior approval by TELA, which is to address a prevalent public concern.
In October 1995, legislative amendments to the Control of Obscene and Indecent Articles Ordinance came into effect which require indecent publications to be identified as such and be displayed in wrappers with a warning notice. Such articles must not be sold to persons under the age of 18. The penalties for contravention of these requirements have been substantially increased.
Mr Cheung stressed that TELA was no regulator of public morals. "It merely blows the whistle when something appears to be going wrong," he said.
"For example, complaints against broadcasting stations are processed by TELA for consideration of the Broadcasting Authority. In respect of film censorship, the commissioner's decisions are subject to review by an independent board.
"For the control of obscene and indecent articles, the powers to classify articles are with the Obscene Articles Tribunal which is a court of law," he added.