drama yet.

The authority said the complaints, received on April 13 and 18, called on ATV not to make a drama out

of the incident involving constable Tsui Po-ko, who is suspected of gunning down a constable and

seriously injuring another at a Tsim Sha Tsui underpass on March 17. Tsui died in the shoot-out.

The Broadcasting Authority received 143 complaints before ATV showed a 30-minute special last

month on the shoot-out, which featured a clip of Tsui participating at the station's quiz show Who

Wants to be a Millionaire?

Denny Ho Kwok-leung, associate professor at the Polytechnic University's department of applied

social sciences, said ATV should wait until the conclusion of the court proceedings surrounding the

case before producing the drama. An inquest into Tsui's death will be held later.

Tsui's family is reported to have been traumatised by the attention from the media, with some family

members being tailed by reporters and paparazzi.

Mr Ho added that compared with the more than 600 complaints received after ATV's 30-minute

special, the reaction this time was mild.

The authority said it would look into the complaints against the planned drama before deciding on

further action.

Another academic warned that the government should be careful when acting on complaints against

programmes that had not yet been broadcast.

Chinese University's journalism professor Kenneth Leung Wai-yin said that any handling of complaints

against a programme that had not been produced could be seen as censorship.

'Does it mean that you aren't even allowed to think about it? In a free society, prior restraint or

censorship is not acceptable,' said Professor Leung.

'Certainly the public can voice their opinion, but in some cases, opinions expressed can stop some

content going public.'

ATV said no final decision had been made on whether to produce the drama.

'We haven't confirmed anything. We are only doing research at the moment. Whether such a

programme will be aired, or even produced, will still depend on many factors,' a spokeswoman said.

But she admitted that the station had plans to make a drama based on the police shoot-out.

Mr Leung said it was common to make melodramas or docudramas on famous cases, such as JFK

by Oliver Stone and the recent Munich, about the attack on Israeli athletes during the Munich Olympics

in 1972.

'If ATV does enough research and does not make the programme libellous it will not be a big

problem,' he said.