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Following is a speech by the Chairman of the Committee on Review of Public Service Broadcasting in Hong Kong, Mr Raymond Wong, at the press conference on the committee today (January 17):
My fellow committee members and I feel greatly honored for having been asked to come up with recommendations which, when adopted, would undoubtedly have long—lasting impact on public service broadcasting in Hong Kong.
The committee is fully cognizant of the challenges it faces as it endeavors to fulfil the mission as outlined just now by the Secretary: To properly position public broadcasting in Hong Kong so that it might, with finite funding, provide the best and most appropriate programming for the community at large.
To achieve this, the committee will make recommendations on the structure, funding, governance, management, programming, monitoring and accountability of the public broadcaster. It is hoped that these recommendations would address the immediate, medium and long—term public broadcasting needs of Hong Kong, regardless of the ever—evolving demographics of the territory or the rapidly advancing delivery technology.
The committee will explore how public broadcast service is carried out overseas─whether it be the BBC in the United Kingdom, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting in the United States, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the Australian Broadcasting Commission, the Nippon Hoso Kyokai (NHK) in Japan, or those in other countries.
These explorations and research will no doubt go a long way toward helping the committee in its deliberations. However, the committee is even more determined that its eventual report and recommendations to the Chief Executive must and shall reflect a service that is genuinely home—grown and tailor—made to serve specifically the Hong Kong audience.
To do this, the review committee shall not just meet behind closed doors and emerge several months later with a report that begs the challenge of credibility.
Instead, the committee needs and welcomes input from both the professional and the public. We will seek the wise counsel of senior management as well as rank—and—file of RTHK, the commercial radio and television licensees, special interest and social services groups, representatives from the fine and performing arts, educators, district councils and last but certainly not least, the legislators.
At the appropriate times, the committee will conduct town hall-type meetings to hear opinions on the public broadcaster’s operation and programming requests from the public at large. If deemed necessary, qualitative analyses of public opinions might also be conducted by independent, non—government related survey groups.
The committee believes that only by casting the widest net possible for public opinions within its given time frame of around nine months would it be able to produce a report and recommendations that would reflect both what the public wants and what the public needs.
Ends/Tuesday, January 17, 2006
Issued at HKT 18:06
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