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The Press
COMMUNICATIONS AND THE MEDIA
Hong Kong's flourishing free press consists of 66 newspapers and more than 520 periodicals, which have a high readership. The registered newspapers include 45 Chinese- language dailies and five English-language dailies. A number of news agency bulletins Chinese, English and Japanese are also registered as newspapers. During the year, an English-language weekly was registered to serve the Filipino community.
Of the Chinese-language dailies, 36 cover mainly general news, both local and overseas, while others cover solely entertainment, especially television and cinema news, or concentrate on finance. The larger papers include Chinese communities overseas in their distribution networks, and some have editions printed outside Hong Kong, in particular in the United States, Canada, Britain and Australia.
Hong Kong is the Southeast Asia 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. Newsweek and Time magazines have editions printed in Hong Kong which is also the base for the regional magazines Asiaweek and the Far Eastern Economic Review.
Several organisations represent and cater for people working in the news media in Hong Kong. The Newspaper Society of Hong Kong represents Chinese and English newspapers. It is empowered to act in matters affecting the interests of its members. The Hong Kong Journalists Association 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 Foreign Correspondents' Club offers its members social facilities and a range of professional activities, including news conferences, briefings and films. The Hong Kong Press Club provides an opportunity for journalists to meet socially.
Major steps have been taken to expand and improve training in journalism, with the Journalism Training Board of the Vocational Training Council playing an important role. With an allocation of some $200,000 from the council, the board in 1985 conducted eight training courses for working journalists. The most popular were two courses in Putonghua (Mandarin) sponsored by the two polytechnics, law courses conducted by the University of Hong Kong, an economics seminar organised jointly by the board and an American bank, and a journalism symposium conducted by two professors from Concordia University in Montreal, Canada. During the year, the board also conducted its third biennial manpower survey in order to collect up-to-date information on the manpower situation in the mass media, with a view to formulating meaningful training plans.
Sound Broadcasting
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 require the publicly financed station to provide balanced and objective broadcasting services to inform, educate and entertain the people of Hong Kong. Its aim is to serve the best interests of the community by providing impartial and balanced news and public affairs programmes reflecting accurately the views of both the government and the public. The Director of Broadcasting is its editor-in-chief.
RTHK now broadcasts a total of 700 hours a week and has a 24-hour service in both Chinese and English. The most recent independent survey showed that the total number of radio listeners was 75 per cent of the population aged nine and above. The station has developed the individual identity of each of its five channels.