On Second Thought: It's time for Hong Kong government to get tough with Asia Television over its programming
They should do this as the station has failed at its job, not because it hasn't paid salaries
Our government, like God, sometimes moves in mysterious ways. For the longest time, ATV has been failing spectacularly to carry out its duties as a licensed broadcaster by filling its airtime with endless reruns of age-old shows (shamelessly promoted as television classics) and self-advertisements (it never tires of reminding whoever still watches during commercial breaks that ATV is - savour the irony - "the conscience of Hong Kong"). Despite frequent complaints from a disgruntled public, the government has barely raised an eyebrow.
Yet when it was in the news that ATV was too short of cash to pay its employees their monthly wages, the government let it be known that it was furious.
It is, of course, entirely understandable that the government wants to be seen on the side of the people. But make no mistake about it - ATV as a public broadcaster failing to do its job is infinitely worse than ATV as an employer failing to pay its staff. That something as fundamental as this has been lost on the government for so long is very worrying indeed.
It has been pointed out that the slow death of ATV and the resulting unchallenged dominance of TVB have put a stop to the growth of the local television industry. This, in turn, has an adverse impact on the development of the mass entertainment and creative industries, including film and pop music.
This is no doubt true. But the television industry is important not only because it plays a leading role in the growth of the creative industry as a whole. How competitive a city is depends to a great extent on the literacy level of its population. In today's image-focused society, literacy is not just the ability to read and write. It is also the ability to interpret, negotiate and make sense of information presented in the form of an image. And given the important role of the media in defining news, setting the agenda and shaping the way we understand the world, the ability to use and think about the media critically is just as essential.
When they do their jobs, free-to-air television networks contribute more than anyone else to the development of the audience's visual and media literacy by communicating with them in sound and images. When they fail to do so, as in the case of ATV, it takes a toll on the quality of the people and their ability to compete, innovate and adapt in the information age.
It's time the government got tough with ATV. Not because it owes money to a few hundred people. But because it has done Hong Kong people a great disservice by failing so miserably at its job.
