TNAG-1555-FCO40-2119-Broadcasting-in-Hong-Kong-1986 — Page 360

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Broadcasting Authority and a Complaints Tribunal

9.

This proposal was supported in a majority of submissions, including some from commercial and industrial sectors. Support for it should be seen in the context of a widespread desire for improved regulation of the industry, a desire for better enforcement, higher programme standards and most noticeably, more public participation in the regulation of the industry. The proposals were articulately opposed by a number of organisations which felt that increased regulation and control would be inimical to broadcasting freedoms and in conflict with the non-interventionist policies which had helped to make Hong Kong successful.

Corporate Structure of the TV Licensees

10.

Opinions were strongly divided on the BRB's proposals for greater control over corporate structure and business diversification of the two TV stations. A tendency towards polarisation could be observed, with most representatives of commercial interests rejecting the proposals as interference with normal business freedom, and most of the education and welfare organisations welcoming the proposals which they argued would redress the present imbalance between the two TV stations and in the long term lead to greater competition for good quality programmes. A number of opponents feared that if the proposals were implemented international confidence in Hong Kong's laissez-faire economy would be shattered. Those in support no less cogently argued that as television was a franchised industry, a balance must be struck between commercial freedom and public responsibility and accountability: at the moment the scales were tipped heavily towards the former, and the television stations were more accountable to their shareholders than to the viewing public.

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A Tobacco Ban

11.

Most of the commercial and industrial companies who wrote submissions were spurred to do so by this topic above. Their response was unequivocally critical. Equally however, the submissions from medical, social welfare and religious organisations was strongly supportive of a ban on tobacco advertising. Some correspondents lamented the fact that so much public attention had been devoted to what was really only a minor recommendation; one quoted the Chinese proverb "when one dog barks at a shadow, all the other dogs follow suit".

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