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The following is issued on behalf of the Broadcasting Authority:
At its meeting today (December 16), the Broadcasting Authority (BA) issued its findings on the following complaint cases:
In November 2006, the BA considered two complaint cases (concerning six public complaints). The first case was about the infringement of Television Broadcasts Limited’s (TVB) copyright by Hong Kong Cable Television Limited (HKCTV). The second case was about the television advertisement for “Friso — Play & Learn”(“美素高”广告) broadcast on the Home channel of Asia Television Limited (ATV) on September 12, 2006 at 7:45pm; on the Jade channel of TVB on September 3, 2006 at 4:45pm; and on the Cable Children Channel of HKCTV on September 5, 2006 at 9:45pm. TVB also reported to the BA that it had failed to provide children’s programmes and programmes with educational values targeting teenagers as required under its domestic free television programme service licence. Please see Annex for details.
The BA also noted that in November 2006, the Commissioner for Television and Entertainment Licensing dealt with 67 cases (180 complaints) under her delegated authority, of which three cases (four complaints) was classified as minor breach, and 44 cases (156 complaints) as unsubstantiated, under section 11 of the Broadcasting Authority Ordinance (BAO); and 20 cases (20 complaints) were outside section 11 of the BAO. Please refer to the BA website: www.hkba.hk for details of the complaints.
Annex
Summary of Substantiated Complaint Cases and a Case of Reported Lapse
Case 1 — Infringement of TVB’s Copyright by HKCTV
A complainant alleged that HKCTV had infringed TVB’s copyright by retransmitting and including the two free-to-air channels of TVB, i.e. Jade Channel and Pearl Channel, as part of HKCTV’s service without TVB’s authorisation or consent from July 20, 2004 to September 19, 2004 (both dates inclusive) and HKCTV was in breach of Clause 22 of its deemed domestic pay television programme service licence (“deemed licence”) in force at that time (note 1).
Clause 22 of HKCTV’s deemed licence stipulates that the licensee shall not do, or permit, in connection with its service, any act which is an infringement of any copyright in material which has copyright protection under any law or Ordinance including, without limitation, literary, dramatic, musical and artistic works, sound recordings, films and broadcasts.
TVB had initiated a court action against HKCTV on the latter’s alleged infringement of TVB’s copyright. In view of the court proceedings, the BA had withheld processing the complaint. The BA noted that the court had ruled that HKCTV had infringed TVB’s copyright (HCA 2055/2004) in November 2004 and the complainant requested the BA to resume processing the complaint in August 2006. Having considered the case and the court judgement, the BA decided that HKCTV had breached Clause 22 of HKCTV’s deemed licence.
HKCTV was advised to observe more closely the licence condition regarding infringement of intellectual property right.
Case 2 - Television advertisement for “Friso — Play & Learn”(“美素高”广告) broadcast on the Home Channel of ATV on September 12, 2006 at 7:45pm; on the Jade Channel of TVB on September 3, 2006 at 4:45pm; and on the Cable Children Channel of HKCTV on September 5, 2006 at 9:45pm.
Five members of the public complained that the portrayal of a child pulling down a tablecloth was a dangerous act which would invite children’s imitation causing injuries to them.
The BA noted that the child featured in the advertisement was a toddler who was a little shorter than the table. Children of that age were usually full of curiosity and were too young to realise the potential danger of the act of pulling down a tablecloth.
The BA considered that (i) the portrayal of the act of a child pulling down a tablecloth was very dangerous; (ii) the advertisement appealed to small children who were apt to imitate any act they saw; (iii) the depiction of the mother looking on her kid’s antics in an approving manner might render young children being unaware of the potential danger of the act; and (iv) household safety of children should come first when considering the complaint case. Even though the theme of the advertisement was on the adventurousness of children, the depiction of a child pulling down a tablecloth was potentially dangerous for children and which, if imitated, might result in irreversible harm to them. The advertisement was unsuitable for broadcast on a children’s channel in a domestic pay television programme service and at all times, even outside Family Viewing Hours (FVH), on a domestic free television programme service.
ATV, TVB and HKCTV were advised to observe more closely paragraph 2 of Chapter 3 of the Generic Code of Practice on Television Advertising Standards on compliance with the Generic Code of Practice on Television Programme Standards (Television Programme Code); paragraph 2 of Chapter 2 on family viewing policy (applicable to domestic free television only); paragraph 1 of Chapter 7 on likely effects of broadcast material on children; paragraph 6 of Chapter 7 on portrayal of dangerous behaviour easily imitated by children; and paragraph 14 of Chapter 7 on compliance with provisions on protection of children on channels targeting children on domestic pay television programme services (applicable to domestic pay television only) of the Television Programme Code.
Case 3 — Failure to broadcast children’s programmes and programmes with educational values targeting teenagers by TVB
TVB reported to the BA that it had failed to provide, in accordance with the licence requirements, on the Pearl channel between 4:00pm and 7:00pm on September 9, 2006 a minimum of 1.5 hours of children’s programmes and at least 2 hours of programmes with educational values targeting teenagers for the week from September 4 to 10, 2006.
Condition 7.1(a) of the First Schedule to TVB’s domestic free television programme service licence stipulates that the licensee shall provide a minimum of 1.5 hours of children’s programmes daily on each language service between 4:00pm and 7:00pm. Condition 7.1(c) of the same Schedule stipulates that the licensee shall broadcast a minimum of two hours of programmes per week with educational values targeting teenagers on the English service between 5:00pm and 7:00pm. Such teenager educational programmes provided shall count towards the children’s programmes required within the 4:00pm and 7:00pm period.
According to TVB’s report, TVB failed to provide any children’s programmes during the stipulated time period on September 9, 2006 and only a total of 1 hour and 20 minutes of teenager educational programmes were broadcast for the week from September 4 to 10, 2006. With a shortfall of 1.5 hours of children’s programmes on the day and 40 minutes of teenager educational programmes for the week concerned, the BA considered that TVB was in breach of Condition 7.1(a) and 7.1(c) of the First Schedule to its licence. TVB was advised to observe more closely the relevant licence conditions in its licence.
Note 1: HKCTV’s current renewed licence took effect on June 1, 2005.
Ends/Saturday, December 16, 2006
Issued at HKT 15:10
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