гним
02715
RECEIVED IN REGISTRY
10 JAN 1986
DESK OFFROA
DEX
PA
qu
In
Londe
Seems die
Payell
in
FROM I A Roberts
News Department
alı
५
DATE: 8 January 1986
cc Mr Galsworthy
FED
PS/Mr Renton
MR RENTON'S VISIT TO CHINA AND HONG KONG: PRESS ARRANGEMENTS
1
!
1. Peking telegram number 30 recommends that in addition to his Hong Kong press conference the Minister should offer to meet the British press and the non-British agencies (presumably AP and AFP principally) for half an hour on 20 January at the end of his programme. I support this recommendation. I will no doubt have to brief the British press unattributably after the talks with Zhou Nan on 18 January but an on the record briefing by the Minister on the evening of 20 January would offer the opportunity of a comprehensive round-up of the Peking leg. I imagine the Minister would prefer to meet the press informally over a drink at Sir Richard Evans' residence rather than to give a formal press conference. The numbers will be quite small. I attach a copy of Peking telegram number 1333 of last September listing the resident British journalists, but it would be helpful to know if there have been changes.
I submit a draft telegram to Peking.2. On the separate question of an interview with David Bonavia, the Times correspondent in Hong Kong, I have discussed this with Mr Galsworthy who believes that it would be
unwise to offer Mr Bonavia any special treatment. He is now firmly convinced of the British Government's bad faith towards Hong Kong and is likely to view any such treatment as an attempt to muzzle him. He might not react kindly. It would, in any case, in the absence of a specific request from Bonavia, be hard to justify an exclusive interview for him and not for the other British journalists resident in Hong Kong. It would look as though being unpleasant and rude eg to Lord Young, paid dividends in receiving special treatment while other more deserving journalists eg David Dodwell of the Financial Times, were unrewarded.
SAROVEN
I A Roberts