}
t
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Spa Media 159 Mike Saubter
since
Talks on 1994/95 Elections
"Leaks" since Mid-July 1993
e 8.
3-
[13/5
The note at Annex summarises Hong Kong press articles
mid-July that reported specific details of the talks on
the 1994/95 elections, or the views/intentions of the
two sides. As can be expected, press reports of this nature tended to duplicate each other. Articles which are
identifiably repetitions of other reports are therefore not
included in the annexed note.
2.
A brief analysis on these articles throw up some
interesting points :
HKB 301/1
2 SEP 1993
referred
to "sources
(a) Excluding the SCMP report at number 9, which
in London"/"London
$ources" 10 reports cited Chinese sources or
sources close to the Chinese side, and
13 cited British sources or sources close to
the British side.
! (6)
(b)-
(c)
The HK Economic Journal accounts for 9 out of
the 23 selected reports, followed by SCMP with
4 reports. A roughly equal number of the HK Economic Journal reports cited British and
Chinese sources.
Apparently, none of its
reports was filed from outside Hong Kong.
It is difficult to assess how much of a report
was based on facts or speculation, particularly
in the case of reports on the two sides'
intentions on the way forward.
But it is
possible to identify those reports on facts
about the talks which would not have been
possible without some access to classified
information. These include reports number 5-9,
of these
11-14, 16, 17, 21,
and 22.
13 reports, the HK Economic Journal accounts
for 7.
Put it another way, 7 of the paper's
9 reports seem to have some factual basis.
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