210
PRESS, BROADCASTING AND CINEMA
with the latest situation reports from the Royal Observatory is passed out immediately on the teleprinters and sometimes amounts to a continuous service for 24 or 36 hours.
The press, however, will tend to judge an information service, not by the material which it issues of its own choice, but by the freedom, and alacrity with which it provides information sought by the press. As the channel of information between the press and some thirty separate departments the Government Information Services deal with a score or more questions a day ranging from simple factual or statistical matters to more complicated requests for policy statements. In the belief that the journalist is best satisfied with what he sees and hears for himself the department arranges on the spot visits to places of news interest and encourages direct interviews between journalists and government officers wherever possible; it arranged some 140 during this year. When the occasion merits it a full scale press conference is held at which new projects can be described or government policies of major interest outlined by the officers concerned.
The facilities of press coverage, always most willingly given by Hong Kong newspapers, are very fully used in the various civic campaigns held during any year whether they be in the fields of public health, road safety or for such particular endeavours as an increase in the rate of police recruiting. Campaigns of this sort will inevitably involve the department's publicity divisions staffed by specialists in film-making, photography, poster design and the production of books and leaflets. Typical campaigns which involve the services of most or all of these specialists are those undertaken on behalf of the Urban Council and Urban Services Department to improve cleanliness in food handling among restaurant workers or to eliminate the mosquito nuisance.
The work of the publicity divisions as well as of the press division is also directed abroad. The full Daily Information Bulletin, or a summarized weekly version is supplied to information offices and other outlets throughout the world. In particular the information officer at the Hong Kong Government Office in London receives all the department's press and publicity material.
Publicity work has had to be geared more and more to the Colony's export efforts and many productions during the year have been