COMMUNICATIONS AND THE MEDIA
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television and cinema news. The larger papers include overseas Chinese communities in their distribution networks, and some have editions printed outside Hong Kong, in particular in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and Australia.
One English daily publishes a daily Braille edition, in conjunction with the Hong Kong Society for the Blind. Two English and three Chinese dailies are published on the Internet. Five news agency bulletins, issued in Chinese, English and Japanese, are also registered as newspapers.
Hong Kong is the base for regional publications such as Asiaweek and the Far East Economic Review. The Asian Wall Street Journal and the International Herald Tribune are also printed here.
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 newspaper proprietors. It is empowered to act in matters affecting the interests of its members.
The Hong Kong Journalists Association is the only industry-wide union of journalists in Hong Kong. It has more than 650 members, an estimated one-fifth of the territory's journalists. From its beginnings in 1968 as a union with a high proportion of expatriate members, Hong Kong Chinese now comprise the bulk of its membership.
The association promotes the right to freedom of expression and actively focuses on a range of press freedom and ethics concerns. Its sub-committees cover such issues as pay, labour rights and disputes, health and safety, training, China-related matters and book publishing.
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 professional facilities and the opportunity for journalists to meet socially. It also provides scholarships to journalism students at Baptist University.
With a view to upgrading the standard of working journalists in Hong Kong, the Vocational Training Council (VTC) allocated $360,000 to its Journalism Training Board and Advertising, Public Relations and Publishing Training Board to conduct some 22 upgrading courses for journalists working for the mass media. The most popular course was 'Journalism Symposium 96' jointly conducted by VTC and the Newspaper Society of Hong Kong, and the News Executives' Association. The Chief Secretary, Mrs Anson Chan, officiated at the symposium.
Other popular courses included 'Workshop on Public Relations Skills and Strategies' (conducted by the City University of Hong Kong) and publishing seminars (by the Anglo-Chinese Textbook Publishers Organisation). The Journalism Training Board also provided a subsidy of $22,000 to the Hong Kong Journalists Association in conducting a number of short talks and seminars for reporters and sub-editors.
Information Policy
The Secretary for Home Affairs has overall responsibility for policy formulation on information and related matters, while the Director of Information Services advises the government on the presentation of its policies, and on public relations matters generally, both within Hong Kong and overseas. The main aims are to ensure an open exchange of information in the community and to keep the media fully informed