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9 MAY 1977
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CONFIDENTIAL
FROM THE SECRETARY FOR HOME AFFAIRS
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Discussion Document on Nationality Act
As agreed we took precautions to ensure that the document did not become public knowledge and kept all our material for the media till 1330 GMT or 9.30 p.m. Hong Kong time. This was in- convenient for the media and the procedure carried some risks for we were unable to brief any of the reporters or editors involved before they published. It would have been much better to have given out the material and held a briefing in the late afternoon after the late editions of the evening papers had been published but this would have meant a risk of a premature publication on the television networks either at 6.00 p.m., 8.30 p.m. or 8.45 p.m. We could not guarantee that an embargo would be honoured and so did not recommend this course.
2. •
All this secrecy was frustrated by a Reuters' cable which arrived during the afternoon embargoed for publication until 1330 GMT. A television network carried the Reuters' item before the deadline and interviewed an Urban Councillor as well. We had no idea that the agencies would be given an embargoed news item and cable it to Hong Kong. The risks of an embargo being broken are obviously as great or greater on an agency embargo as a government embargo.
3.
I have written to the television network expressing disappointment that they found it necessary to break the embargo. We shall have to try to get this system understood by the media here but we have had unfortunate experiences in the past. If, however, embargoed items are to be issued to the agencies in London then clearly we should not increase the risks of premature disclosure by doing the same thing here.
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4.
I think perhaps this is a point we should bear in mind in future when we are trying to observe common deadlines for the release of material to the media. I would suggest that we should be informed of the times of not only publication but also of the release of embargoed material to the media.
J.A.B. Stewart, Esq., OBE, Foreign & Commonwealth Office, London SW1A 2AH.
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Denis (D.C. Bray)
CONFIDENTIAL