A
4. In his letter of 9 October to the Secretary of State, Alistair Lack (the acting Head of Current Affairs at BBC World Service in English) says that to "celebrate" the new arrangement they would like to broadcast a live one-hour "phone-in" with the Secretary of State as guest. The programme would be presented by their diplomatic correspondent, Mark Brayne. They hope that the Secretary of State would answer questions from all over the world on a wide range of foreign affairs topics, but the programme would have a special emphasis on the Far East. In order to maximise their audience they would like the "phone-in" to take place in Bush House
on Sunday, 7 January from 1300 to 1400 GMT. If the Secretary of State does not wish to accept this proposal they ask him to
consider, as an alternative, a interview conducted by Mark Brayne.
No doubt if the 7 January timing was inconvenient the BBC would
offer alternatives.
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5. In view of the Secretary of State's plans to visit Hong Kong in January, an interview with Mark Brayne although it would cover
other subjects too would provide a good opportunity to set the tone, and to some extent the agenda, for the visit. A "phone-in" would be less productive. Recent experience of "phone-ins" has not
been happy.
They tend to stimulate aggressive and often incoherent questioning that does not allow the responder to make his point.
6.
The Hong Kong Government believe that, in order to secure the best chance of retaining World Service relay broadcasting in Hong
Kong after 1997, it is best to treat the broadcasts in a low key
manner. They are in fact transmitted as one of the channels of
Radio Television Hong Kong (the 24 hour service will be called
RTHK 6). If BBC broadcasting can be allowed to develop quietly in
this way and acquire a large audience over several years, it will be
more difficult for the Chinese to stop it after 1997. Publicity has
been harmful in the past; when the then Secretary for Administrative
/Services
OUTAAZ