Leung to pay huge price in TV licence farce - Chris Yeung

Leung to pay huge price in TV licence farce  - Chris Yeung, HKEJ 2012oct28 

http://forum.hkej.com/node/106927

Hong Kong Television Network staff has vowed to return to the government headquarters next week to restart their protracted battle for a free-to-air television licence when they ended their week-long protest on Saturday.

They have good reasons to do so.

Almost two weeks after Leung Chun-ying and the Executive Council he presided dropped a bombshell by denying HKTV a licence at a closed door meeting, the Chief Executive and his top aides have failed to provide justifications and reasonable grounds for their decision.

On Tuesday, Leung gave a long defence, in term of the amount of time, for the Exco decision after tens of thousands of people staged a march and assembly outside the government headquarters at Tamar. But like his first comment made at a Legislative Council question-time session on the previous week, it was short of substance and convincing reasons.

In his comments on the last Tuesday, Leung said the free TV licence decision, like many other issues, would not please everyone, saying a decision that made someone happy was bound to cause dismay to some others. Aside from HKTV boss and staff, it is obviously clear the Exco decision has brought not just dismay but anger to many people in the society. It is an irony, however, few, if any, have emerged as happy men and women in the home-made farcical show on free TV licence produced by the Leung team.

Both the two would-be new operators, namely now TV’s Hong Kong Television Entertainment and i-Cable’s Fantastic TV, have not celebrated their success in the free-to-air venture with ecstasy, at least publicly. The two existing operators, namely TVB and ATV, were angry birds voicing out opposition against the government green light to new operators.

Despite calls for more disclosure of the reasons behind the Exco decision, Leung’s two top aides, Chief Secretary Carrie Lam and Justice Secretary Rimsky Yuen, have insisted they could not do so, citing Exco’s rule of confidentiality and the judicial review process that HKTV boss Ricky Wong has vowed to pursue soon.

Barring an unexpected change of mind, it looks certain that the government will stand firm on their stance on the TV license decision when pan-democratic legislators make another attempt to invoke special powers to demand the administration to hand in confidential documents relating to the decision on November 6.

With the backing of the pro-government camp, the motion is almost certain to be vetoed - again.

From the tactical perspective, the government’s refusal to explain further their decision by shielding behind the rules of confidentiality at Exco and judicial proceedings seems to have succeeded.

The Powers and Privileges Ordinance would have been the most powerful weapon for legislators to bring the government to their knees. There is practically little the pan-democrat lawmakers can do more to challenge the government decision.

Unlike the national education curriculum saga last year, it will be difficult for HKTV staff and their supporters to keep and build up the political momentum of public opposition against the government decision for it to force the Leung team to reconsider the Exco decision.

In what could also be seen as a reminder to the non-official Exco members who have deviated from the official stance on the license decision, Carrie Lam reiterated at the weekend of the importance of collective responsibility governing the Exco members.

The message is clear: any move to reverse their decision without good reasons could deal a body blow to the authority of Exco and the decision-making mechanism of the executive-led government.

More important, the room for a change of the decision will be limited, if any at all, if that stems from a political order from the power-that-be to Leung.

In his defence on Tuesday, Leung has repeatedly denied the decision was politically-motivated. Interestingly, Ricky Wong has also dismissed political factor in the government decision, which he described was made by a “small number of people.”

It is anybody’s guess on whether Wong was serious or he was just trying to avoid fingering at Beijing. An analyst said there was a strong body of opinion within the Exco in support of ATV, which was being ridiculed as Hong Kong’s CCTV. They are said to feel fearful about the survival of ATV if three new licences, or more specifically HKTV, are being granted by the government.

The truth may never be told even when the dispute goes to court as the points of argument are likely to be focused on the procedures of the government’s protracted review and scrutiny of applications instead of the decision on HKTV.

A former senior official said it is likely that some procedures in the whole process may be ruled by the court as undesirable, inappropriate or even improper. But the decision not to grant a licence to HKTV is not likely to be invalidated.

In many senses, Part One of the city’s long-running serial drama on free-to-air television services is nearing its finale. Part Two will begin in earnest. But signs do not augur well there will be a happy ending this time. Another all-lose finale is the more likely outcome.

The script is on the wall: consumers being denied real choices in free-to-air TV services; a new station not given the licence; the creative industry suffered a setback and, more important, the government having to pay a huge price for standing on the wrong side of history.

.END