ABSTRACT
Hong Kong’s television regulations open up as well as limit the space for the emergence of a civil society different from the preceding ones – autonomous and self-conscious – as compared with the state-led or oppositional societies. Television is free to produce entertainment, but restricted in covering political and socioeconomic issues. Interestingly, the apolitical and noncontroversial character of television helps to bring people of different backgrounds together to interact and mingle. Political allegiances which divided the society were put aside in the public space provided by television.
