CODE 18-77
нку
HKD) 306/4
RESTRICTED
14
Reference....
Assistant Heads of Certain Departments
Regional Directors, Research Department
BBC MONITORING SERVICE: CUSTOMER ASSESSMENT OF PRODUCT VALUE
1.
I should be grateful for your Department's assessment of the value of material you receive from the BBC Monitoring Service, which comes to you in some or all of the following ways:
(a)
daily 'Summary of World Broadcasts' (SWB's) and
'Monitoring Report',
(b)
weekly 'World Broadcasting Information' and 'World Radio Telegraphy Information',
2.
(c)
(a)
ad hoc extracts of urgent material from the telexed 'Newsfile' sent to you from this Department,
video transcripts of foreign TV,
(e) direct contact with Monitoring Service personnel.
The purpose of this exercise is to discover whether the FCO is actually getting the material it most requires from the Monitoring Service, and also quickly enough to be of use. The agreed FCO/BBC objectives for the Monitoring Service of most relevance to FCO Departments are:
3.
(a) to monitor the broadcasts of selected foreign and overseas
countries for news and information on political, social, economic, military, and other required matters; meeting, as far as possible, the priority requirements of the principal customers of the service;
(b)
to provide the British Government and the BBC with regular and expeditious documentation of the significant content of such broadcasts;
(c) to provide a 24-hour service of urgent and immediate news
items selected from monitored material.
Priorities for monitoring are drawn up on a Whitehall wide basis. (Geographical Departments were consulted in 1986 when these were drawn up). However, except for a 20% contribution from the MOD, the cost of the Monitoring Service (some £llm in 1987/88) comes from the FCO vote for the BBC External Services. The FCO is responsible to Parliament for the Grants-in-Aid and we need to ensure as far as possible that these resources are being used economically, efficiently and effectively. In addition, there are
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