COMMUNICATIONS AND THE MEDIA
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successful Hong Kong Business Conference in that city in May, for about 150 European businessmen.
Prior to the business conference, a regional liaison meeting was held in Brussels between Hong Kong based organisations in Europe, to allow their representatives to discuss and co-ordinate their public relations strategies. The meeting, chaired by Sir David Akers- Jones, Special Adviser to the Governor, was attended by some 30 overseas representatives from government, quasi-government and private organisations.
Public Relations Consultants in the United States
To strengthen the public relations efforts in the United States, which is Hong Kong's largest overseas market, the government commissioned the New York firm of Gavin Anderson and Company in late 1986 to develop a plan and strategy for Hong Kong.
Proposals drawn up by the company for a public relations programme on the basis of market research were found to be acceptable to the government. With the approval of the Central Consultants Selection Board, Gavin Anderson and Company were employed as the Hong Kong government's principal public relations consultant in the United States to implement the programme.
The Press
Hong Kong's flourishing free press consists of 68 newspapers and 549 periodicals, which have a high readership. The registered newspapers include 44 Chinese-language dailies and two English-language dailies. A number of news agency bulletins - Chinese, English and Japanese - are also registered as newspapers.
Of the Chinese-language dailies, 34 cover mainly general news, both local and overseas, while others cover solely entertainment, especially television and cinema news, and one concentrates 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 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. 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, as well as the Asian Wall Street Journal and the International Herald Tribune.
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 news- paper proprietors. 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. The Journalism Training Board of the Vocational Training Council has, among its various tasks, the job of determining the total manpower and training needs in journalism and related fields of activity.
The board also looks into the institutional training facilities available to journalists, and prepares job specifications, training programmes and trade test guidelines for the principal jobs in the mass media.