XN000022-1995-10-19 — Page 23

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Mrs Cartland told the Councillors that as the exclusivity period of Wharf Cable, the subscription TV licensee, was due to end in mid-1996, the views of the Legislative Council would be sought on the deregulation framework the Government expected to put in place thereafter.

"The deregulation framework must, of course, not only offer more choice to the Hong Kong viewer but must also treat fairly our existing licensed broadcasters," she stressed.

"A broadcasting regulatory regime is rather like a complicated model or a game of chess - if you move one piece you affect all the others and planning must allow for this.

"This sort of complexity is a relatively recently phenomenon and is mainly due to the impact of new technologies and hence to the development of new means of bringing television to the viewer," she added.

In order to deal effectively with these new developments, Mrs Cartland said a complete overhaul of the broadcasting legislation would be necessary with a view to introduce a new Broadcasting Ordinance to replace the existing Television and Telecommunication Ordinances.

"I am pleased to say that we do expect that in this session we will be able finally to introduce the Broadcasting Bill into the Legislative Council. The essence of this bill will be legislative tidying-up on a very large scale," she said.

She undertook to brief LegCo Members on progress, on concepts for the overall structure of the bill and on the single major new issue of substance to be incorporated into the bill, that is regulation of Video on Demand, before the bill was introduced into the Council.

On the arts side, Mrs Cartland noted that it was not too fanciful to say the Government's encouragement of the creative arts helped sustain the entrepreneurial spirit that had allowed Hong Kong to make so much progress over the recent past.

At the same time, she continued, the creative arts' willingness to question and probe kept society on its toes to ensure that other important priorities were not overlooked in a headlong drive for material success.

Sport is another area in which a community's pride and identity can be reinforced through the achievements of its sporting heroes and heroines.