The Chief Executive in Council has approved George Chan and Jackey Chan, who are disqualified people under the Broadcasting Ordinance, to exercise control of Television Broadcasts and TVB Pay Vision.

George Chan was approved to exercise control of TVB as the Assistant Managing Director, and to exercise control of TVB Pay Vision as Director. The approval took effect from January 8 and January 19 when the two companies submitted their applications.

Jackey Chan was approved to exercise control of TVB Pay Vision as the Chief Operating Officer between January 19 and April 30, before he had resigned from TVB Pay Vision. The Chief Executive in Council decided that no retrospective approval should be granted for the two disqualified people to exercise control of the two companies from November 12, 2004 to January, 2007.

The disqualified people issue arises from the familial relationship among Jackey Chan, George Chan and Robert Chan employed in different media businesses. Jackey Chan was a TVB Pay Vision principal officer from February 23, 2004 to April 30, 2007. George Chan became a TVB principal officer on November 12, 2004, and a TVB Pay Vision director on November 10, 2005. Robert Chan is an Economic Journal Company director, which became the proprietor of the local newspaper Hong Kong Economic Journal from September 1, 2006.

Minimal risk

The Commerce, Industry & Technology Bureau said when assessing the applications with regard to the impact on the overall media diversity in Hong Kong, the Administration noted that George Chan was not responsible for programming in TVB and Robert Chan did not hold any editorial position at the Hong Kong Economic Journal.

George Chan also submitted undertakings to the Government stating that he would act independently from any of his relatives in the media industry. The risk of editorial uniformity and media concentration would be minimal.

On the other hand, given George Chan's extensive experience in the media and telecommunications fields, the approval could have a positive effect on the development of the broadcasting industry, and on the Hong Kong economy. The familial relationships of the three people involved would unlikely have any effect on competition in the relevant television programme service markets.

Sanction mooted

On the decision to reject the applications for retrospective approval, the bureau said TVB and TVB Pay Vision failed to disclose to the Broadcasting Authority or the Government that disqualified people had been exercising control of the two companies. Overlooking the statutory restriction and the familial relationship among the people involved, even if inadvertently, cannot be an excuse for non-compliance.

The authority will consider imposing appropriate regulatory sanctions on the two companies in accordance with the law and their domestic free and pay-television programme-service licences for the period of non-compliance.