TNAG-2862-FCO40-4116-Article-XIX-(lobby-group-for-press-freedom)-and-Hong-Kong-Jo-1993 — Page 38

Legislation

Provision

4.

Television

Ordinance

(Cap. 52)

CONFIDENTIAL

3

Review

The following proposals of the

Journalists Association have been

considered :

Conclusions and recommendations

Section 14

the Governor in Council

may, on the recommendation

of the Broadcasting

Authority (BA), revoke a

television licence under

certain circumstances.

Revocation of a television licence

should be made only in the case of

continual and serious breaches of

various legal and licensing

requirements, and after a number of

suspensions of the licence.

Any hearings to consider revocation of a

licence should be held in public.

We propose to amend section 14

in the Television (Amendment)

Bill 1993 introduced into LegCo

in January 1993 so as to limit

the Governor in Council's

current absolute discretion to

revoke a licence. This is in

line with the Journalists

Association's suggestion.

We propose that section 14 be

also amended to provide for the

BA to hold public hearings when

it conducts an inquiry with a

view to possibly recommending

revocation of a licence.

Section 14(3)(c), which empowers the

Governor in Council to revoke a licence

if the security of Hong Kong so

requires, should be deleted.

We propose to repeal section

14(3)(c).

Page 3 of Annex