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Following is a question by the Hon Vincent Fang and a written reply by the Secretary for Home Affairs, Mr Tsang Tak-sing, in the Legislative Council today (May 6):
Question:
During the period when he was drafting the 2009-2010 Budget, the Financial Secretary invited the public to express their views through repeatedly broadcasting a series of publicity messages (PM) on various electronic media and placing advertisements on newspapers. Some members of the business sector have pointed out that the frequent broadcast of the publicity footages concerned on television during prime time not only wasted a large amount of public resources but also took up the time slots for commercial promotion. Furthermore, as the Financial Secretary had, in such messages, turned down all the requests of the public by claiming that they were not in compliance with economic principles, it was doubtful if the Government was serious about consulting the public. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(a) of the total expenditure (including sponsorship) on the aforesaid PM and newspaper advertisements, the number of times and duration for which such PM were broadcast on various electronic media, as well as the number of pages of such newspaper advertisements;
(b) whether the free time slots provided by electronic media to the Government for broadcasting "announcements in the public interest" were used for the aforesaid PM; of the criteria for the utilisation of such time slots (including how the subjects were selected); of the numbers of subjects publicised in such time slots in the past 12 months and their respective broadcast time, as well as the time and percentage taken up by the aforesaid PM relating to the Budget; and
(c) whether the overall coordination and planning of the above PM and newspaper advertisements had been outsourced to public relations firms; if so, of the expenditure involved; if not, which government department was responsible for the work concerned?
Reply:
President,
(a) Every year, the Financial Secretary launches a public consultation exercise prior to the release of the Budget. To this end, the Government organises publicity activities to enhance the public's understanding about the Budget preparation process and encourage them to express views during the consultation period. The 2009/10 public consultation exercise attracted some 6,750 submissions, which are about six times of 1,005 received for the 2008/09 consultation.
To promote the 2009/10 public consultation exercise, 10 TV Announcements in the Public Interest (APIs) and 12 radio APIs at a cost of HK$400,000 have been produced. A well-known local cartoonist was also commissioned to produce a cartoon booklet ("Tomorrow – Future for Today") carrying the consultation message. A total of 30,000 copies were printed at a cost of $337,000. The booklets were distributed primarily to secondary school students.
The Budget TV and radio APIs were broadcast from December 1, 2008 to February 15, 2009 on five local TV stations with a total of 41 channels and three radio stations with a total of 12 channels. The TV APIs was broadcast 6,371 times, an average of about two times a day on each channel. The radio APIs was broadcast 1,760 times, an average of about two times a day on each channel. The Government has not taken out any newspaper advertisement for the consultation exercise.
(b) According to the Broadcasting Ordinance and the licence conditions of domestic free TV programme services and sound broadcasting services, an air time of not more than one minute per clock hour should be allocated to broadcast free APIs by the SAR Government. At the same time, according to the licence conditions, the Broadcasting Authority (BA) has also directed that domestic pay-TV service operators must allocate air time of up to one minute per every two clock hours for the free broadcast of APIs.
According to guidelines laid down by the BA, APIs should carry messages that are in the public interest and relate to issues of public concern.
For the past 12 months, a total of 230,560 minutes of free airtime have been allocated by TV stations, and a total of 103,660 minutes of free airtime have been allocated by radio stations to broadcast government APIs. During the period, some 390 TV APIs and around 450 radio APIs were broadcast on over 70 topics, covering such issues as anti-drugs, health and hygiene, road safety, social welfare, labour relations, employment, occupational safety, environmental protection and policy consultation exercises.
A total of 3,185.5 minutes of TV airtime was allocated to publicise the public consultation on the Budget, representing 1.38% of the total free airtime allocated over the past 12 months. A total of 880 minutes was allocated for radio APIs on the same subject, representing 0.85% of the total free airtime allocated over the past 12 months.
(c) The publicity of the Budget was planned and executed by the Financial Secretary's Office with the Information Services Department's assistance. No public relations firm had been commissioned to provide strategy formulation, co-ordination and consultancy services in relation to the Budget.
Ends/Wednesday, May 6, 2009
Issued at HKT 12:35
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