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The following is issued on behalf of the Broadcasting Authority:
At its meeting today (August 25), the Broadcasting Authority (BA), announced that it had imposed a financial penalty on Television Broadcasts Limited (TVB) and TVB Pay Vision Limited (TVBPV) each for $50,000 for contravention of section 3(2) of Schedule 1 to the Broadcasting Ordinance (Cap 562) (BO) and Condition 12 of their respective domestic free and domestic pay television programme service licences by allowing their principal officers and/or director to exercise control of the two companies in the capacity of disqualified persons (DPs) without the requisite approval of the Chief Executive in Council (CE in C) from November 2004 to January 2007.
Apart from the financial penalty, the BA considered it necessary for TVB and TVBPV to put in place a compliance mechanism to prevent similar breaches in future. The BA therefore directed TVB and TVBPV to submit proposals to enhance their internal monitoring systems to the BA within one month.
Under the BO, the BA is empowered to impose regulatory sanctions against contravention of the DP provisions under the BO. On June 27, 2007, the CE in C approved the applications of TVB and TVBPV for two DPs to exercise control of the licensees from the dates of the application of TVB and TVBPV (i.e. January 8 and 19, 2007), but rejected their applications for retrospective approval. Details of TVB and TVBPV's contravention and the relevant statutory provisions are at Annex.
In the month of August, the BA also approved the applications of Greenroll Limited, Harvest Star International Limited, Royal Park Hotel Management Limited and The Peninsula Hotel Limited for renewal of their respective other licensable television programme service licences to provide television programme services in hotel rooms pursuant to sections 11(1) and (6) of the Broadcasting Ordinance (Cap 562). At present, there are 24 other licensable television programme service licensees in Hong Kong.
The BA also noted that in July 2007, the Commissioner for Television and Entertainment Licensing dealt with 92 cases (204 complaints) under her delegated authority, of which four cases (five complaints) were classified as minor breaches, and 76 cases (178 complaints) as unsubstantiated, under section 11 of the Broadcasting Authority Ordinance (BAO). 12 cases (21 complaints) were outside section 11 of the BAO. Please refer to the BA website: www.hkba.hk for details of the complaints.
Ends/Saturday, August 25, 2007
Issued at HKT 15:40
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