COMMUNICATIONS, THE MEDIA & INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
One English daily publishes a daily Braille edition, in conjunction with the Hong Kong Society for the Blind. Two English and six 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 Financial Times, Asian Wall Street Journal, USA Today 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 (HKJA) is the only industry-wide union of journalists in Hong Kong and one of the most active. It has more than 720 members, an estimated one-fifth of Hong Kong'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 Vocational Training Council (VTC) allocated $380,000 to its Journalism Training Board and Advertising, Public Relations and Publishing Training Board to conduct some two dozen upgrading courses for journalists in the mass media. The most popular course was 'Journalism Symposium '97' jointly conducted by VTC, the Newspaper Society of Hong Kong, and the News Executives' Association. Other popular courses included 'Putonghua', 'China Law' and 'Internet and Home Page' (conducted by the City University of Hong Kong). The Journalism Training Board also provided a subsidy of $23,000 to the Hong Kong Journalists Association to conduct 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, 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 of the government's plans, policies and activities, and to promote Hong Kong's image abroad.
Information Services Department
The Information Services Department (ISD) serves as the government's public relations consultant, publisher, advertising agent and news agency. It provides the link between the administration and the media and, through the latter, enhances public understanding of government policies, decisions and activities.
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