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Following is a question by the Hon Choy So-yuk and a written reply by the Secretary for Commerce, Industry and Technology, Mr Joseph W P Wong, in the Legislative Council today (June 21):
Question:
It has been reported that a poll launched earlier by a radio programme allegedly involves blatant insults to women, reckless disregard for the morals of the community, and promotion of sex crimes. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(a) of the respective total numbers of complaints received in each of the past three years about the programmes of that radio station and other radio stations, together with a breakdown by the nature of such complaints; and
(b) whether it has investigated if the above poll involves abetting indecent assaults on women or a breach of the Control of Obscene and Indecent Articles Ordinance; if it has, of the details of the progress of the investigation; if not, the reasons for that, and the maximum penalty for the offences involved?
Reply:
Madam President,
(a) The Broadcasting Authority (BA) established under the Broadcasting Authority Ordinance (Cap. 391) is an independent statutory regulator. One of its functions is to secure proper standards of television and sound broadcasting with regard to programme content. The number of complaints about radio programmes dealt with by the BA in the past three years (from April 2003 to March 2006) and their breakdown by nature are at Annex.
(b) As to whether the poll on "The Hong Kong female artistes I would most want to indecently assault" conducted by the radio programme "So Fab" broadcast on CR2 Channel of the Hong Kong Commercial Broadcasting Company Limited (CRHK) around midnight on June 3, 2006 involves abetting indecent assaults, the BA has referred the case to the Department of Justice for follow-up.
Publication of information on the Internet is subject to the regulation of the Control of Obscene and Indecent Articles Ordinance (Cap. 390). Since information on the Internet is voluminous and it changes very frequently, the Government, after consulting the public and the industry in 1996, has collaborated with the Hong Kong Internet Service Providers Association to formulate a code of practise which sets out the procedure of handling complaints and the action to be taken by Internet service providers. The normal practise is to request the parties concerned to post a warning notice about or delete web contents suspected of being indecent or obscene.
CRHK acted of its own accord to remove the poll from its website several days after it was posted thereon. According to the above established handling procedure, there is no need to follow up the poll content concerned under the Control of Obscene and Indecent Articles Ordinance (COIAO).
The maximum penalty for the publication of an obscene article under the COIAO is a fine of $1,000,000 and an imprisonment for 3 years. The maximum penalty for the publication of an indecent article breaching the COIAO is a fine of $400,000 and an imprisonment for 12 months on first conviction, and a fine of $800,000 and an imprisonment for 12 months on second or subsequent conviction.
Ends/Wednesday, June 21, 2006
Issued at HKT 15:18
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