1 TV cultural news push to help build West Kowloon audiences
Olga Wong, The Standard 27 December 2007

Cultural news updates may soon be provided on Hong Kong television, the first step in the government's move to build audiences for programmes to be offered at the West Kowloon Cultural District.

The public has urged the administration to avoid focusing solely on building the arts hub's infrastructure, and the Home Affairs Bureau said it was considering ways to strengthen cultural "software" in Hong Kong.

Deputy Secretary for Home Affairs Esther Leung Yuet-yin said the bureau was negotiating with television stations to encourage them to offer regular cultural news.

She said details of the arrangement would be announced early in the new year.

Ms Leung said televised cultural news would cover the arts festival and cultural programmes, adding: "It is like sports news, we have it every day."

Responding to lawmakers' call for a cultural news television channel to be launched, she said this would be the next step because such a channel would require commercials to support diverse and regular cultural programmes.

If a cultural channel were formed, she said, it would become a platform for young artists to perform publicly. The bureau will assess the feasibility with the cultural sector.

While building up an audience, the government is also inviting overseas cultural institutions such as the Clore Duffield Foundation in Britain to organise seminars and workshops for cultural professionals and administrators. The foundation, a grant-giving organisation, offers a leadership programme.

Ms Leung said outstanding cultural administrators would be sent overseas on exchange programmes and internships, which would be organised by institutions such as the Asian Arts Council, British Council and Goethe-Institut. "We hope quality workshops will raise the level of the general professionals while overseas exchange programmes will benefit the outstanding ones."

The Academy for Performing Arts will be reviewed next year to see how it could work effectively with the arts hub, and whether it should be transformed into a university.

"The academy should be equipped to train not only students, but also teachers of performing arts," Ms Leung said. A review would also assess whether it should be transformed into a university.

Tsang Sin-ming, assistant controller of external affairs for TVB, said there was room for co-operation between the government and the station when broadcasting was digitalised. "We will have five more channels, which might provide more air time for delivering cultural information," he said.