Devilish ad escapes censure
The television watchdog refused to take action yesterday against a telephone company advertisement featuring the devil which upset more than 200 viewers.
The City Telecom advertisement was aired late at night when children were unlikely to be watching, the Television and Entertainment Licensing Authority (Tela) said.
'We think the treatment of the advert should not be disturbing to an adult viewer,' chairman Eddie Chan Yuk-tak said.
The Broadcasting Authority Complaints Committee took the unusual step of viewing the advert after Tela had cleared it.
The review was made because of the 213 complaints, an unusually high number, said Joyce Tai Poon Ching-sheung, who chairs the complaints committee.
TVB's popular infotainment programme, Focus on Focus, was also cleared of allegations that it encouraged superstition.
It had broadcast a segment about a trader who claimed the view of Hong Kong island from his office looked like a sleeping Buddha and another businessman who said the area around Chek Lap Kok was shaped like a goddess, said officials.
Nearly all the 69 complaints about its superstitious nature appeared to have come from a religious group, they said.
The authority said: 'It was an interesting angle from a different point of view.' Action was again taken against Hong Kong Cable Television over its Cantonese dubbing of the cult American animated programme, South Park.
It received advice from the authority over excessive 'undesirable language and sex-related expressions' in the translation.
