COMMUNICATIONS AND THE MEDIA
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Hong Kong is the Southeast Asian base for many newspapers, magazines, news agencies and the electronic media. Among the international news agencies with offices in Hong Kong are Associated Press, Reuters, United Press International and Agence France Presse. Several organisations represent and cater for people working in the news media in Hong Kong. The Foreign Correspondents' Club, which moved to new premises during the year, offers its members social facilities and a range of professional activities, including news conferences, briefings and films. The Hong Kong Journalists' Association (HKJA) seeks to raise professional standards by recommending better training, pay and conditions in journalism, and advises its members in the event of disputes with employers. The Hong Kong Press Club provides an opportunity for journalists to meet socially. The Newspaper Society of Hong Kong represents Chinese and English newspapers. It is empowered to act in matters affecting the interests of its members.
It is generally recognised that the standard of training for journalists in Hong Kong should be improved. The report on the First Manpower Survey of the Mass Media, published at the end of 1982, revealed a lack of in-house practical training in the media. The Journalism Training Board, now under the Vocational Training Council, recommended that future training plans can best deal with Hong Kong's specific problems by adopting a two-pronged programme. First, the programme would enable journalists without post- secondary qualifications to upgrade their skills and knowledge to certificate level. Second, such courses could be used by journalists with a post-secondary qualification either to add specific journalistic skills to that qualification, or to supplement an existing journalism post-secondary qualification with specialist knowledge. During the year, the Journalism Training Board arranged for the Hong Kong Polytechnic to sponsor a four-week English Oral Communication Skills Course for Chinese journalists. And the Communications Department of the Baptist College conducted a News Translation Workshop.
In December, Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK), at the request of the board, started a series of eight attachment courses, each lasting three weeks, for young working journalists from the print media. The course was designed as a simple introduction to the work of RTHK in both radio and television. The Director of Broadcasting may offer this course as an annual event.
Newspapers and other publications both locally-produced and imported are prosecuted whenever it is felt that obscene or excessively violent material has been published for sale in Hong Kong; 80 prosecutions were successfully completed during 1982.
Sound Broadcasting
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There are 10 radio channels in Hong Kong. Five are operated by Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK), three by the Hong Kong Commercial Broadcasting Company, more popularly known as Commercial Radio (CR), and two by the British Forces Broadcasting Service (BFBS).
Policy guidelines for RTHK, which were drawn up in 1980, require the publicly-financed station to provide a balanced output of information, education and entertainment; a service of impartial news and public affairs programming; and to expand production which encourages audience participation. It aims to reflect fully the views of the government and the people of Hong Kong, providing a two-way channel of communication between them. The Director of Broadcasting is its editor-in-chief.
RTHK now broadcasts a total of 700 hours per week and has a 24-hour service in both Chinese and English. An independent survey conducted in July 1982 showed that the total number of radio listeners was 72 per cent of the population aged nine and above.