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Monday, April 30, 1973
EMBARGO NOTE TO EDITORS:
The following item is embargoed
until 8 p.m. today (Monday).
RESPONSIBILITIES OF BROADCASTING IN HONG KONG
The job of Radio Hong Kong is to tell the truth and there can be
no excuse for anything else, the Acting Director of Broadcasting, Mr. James
Hawthorne, said in a talk to the Hong Kong Toastmasters Club this (Monday)
evening.
He said that "Broadcasting in Hong Kong brings additional responsibilities."
Many people told him that so-called B.B.C. values should be applied
in Hong Kong.
But, he said, the B.B.C. was a product of British society -- a society
which was outspoken, humourous, irreverent, polemic. It was those factors
in society which largely shaped the character of the B.B.C. and created its
freedom.
"In many respects broadcasting in England is easy," Mr. Hawthorne
said. "You haven't to worry too much about the effect of what you say because
you know that society as a whole can take it.
In Hong Kong, however, one had to think the problem through more
carefully, more especially when Radio Hong Kong was construed to be the voice
of the government.
'Not only must we consider what we say, but how we might be interpreted
and therefore how the task of governing may be affected," Mr. Hawthorne said.
Objectivity, he said, was essential but it would be inappropriate and
even irresponsible to use some of the techniques of "hard hitting journalism."
These exercises +