War of words escalates on Free TV battle

An applicant of a free-to-air TV license demanded on Monday that ATV Executive Director James Shing Pan-yu apologize for accusing a group of members of the company stealing confidential information from ATV, prior to submitting their application for a TV license.

City Telecom Chairman and founder Ricky Wong Wai-kay and five of his colleagues said they have taken legal steps against Shing.

"Neither I nor my colleagues have taken any information from ATV, not even a blank paper," said Wong on a news conference on Monday.

Wong's statement came after Shing had launched a second attack on the City Telecom group hours earlier. Shing publicly accused Wong on Saturday of absconding with confidential information from ATV when Wong was the CEO of ATV four years ago.

On Saturday night, Wong issued a statement in response, denying all charges and contending that should there be any confidential information taken away by him four years ago, it could hardly be of any value in an application for a television license today at any event.

In December 2009, City Telecom submitted an application for a domestic free television service license, while Fantastic Television (a subsidiary of iCable) and Hong Kong Television Entertainment (a subsidiary of PCCW) did the same in early 2010.

The Communications Authority had already finished vetting the three applications and submitted its recommendations to the Executive Council for approval in 2011. The government, however, has made no final license approval. The current two free TV operators, ATV and TVB, oppose the issuance of new licenses on grounds that the market already is spread too thin.

Earlier, Wong, who publicly has voiced his optimism on several occasions that he would get a license, said he already had invested more than HK$300 million in the project and will hire more than 1,000 more staff next year.

The war of words escalated when Wong's lawyer issued a letter to Shing, threatening to take action against Shing for libel. The drama continued on Monday, when Shing, at a second press conference reiterated his accusations against Wong.

In response to Wong's statement on Saturday, Shing pointed out that Wong was the CEO of ATV for 12 days in December, 2008, only one year before he applied for the TV license.

Shing said information taken away by Wong included some financial data and contracts, which Shing alleged helped Wong to write his application for the free-to-air license.

Shing questioned that how Wong, a layman to the free TV industry, can prepare a free TV license application within a year after leaving ATV. Shing said the industry is very specialized, and a great deal of information is required in order to file a proposal for a TV license. Shing also charged that Wong's friend, Andy Ho On-tat, ex-information coordinator at the Office of Chief Executive, lobbied lawmakers to support the issuance of the license at the celebration for the founding anniversary of Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong (DAB) this month.

The Advice of the Advisory Committee on Post-office Employment for Former Chief Executives and Politically Appointed Officials, stipulates that Ho must seek the government's permission before engaging in lobbying activities on matters related to the government for two years after leaving office.

Shing said Ho should come forward to explain himself to the public and the government.