Corporation.
I did this at a press
conference I gave after my return from Hong
Kong in October when I had fresh in my mind
the inaccuracy and exaggeration of BB for
(mcluding B.B.C. reports)
news reports, particularly on incidents in
the border area. It is difficult for me
now to quote chapter and verse in support of
this criticism but I know that my views
were shared by others both in this country
and in Hong Kong. I do appreciate that if
reports are to remain newsworthy they must be
issued quickly, often before their accuracy
can be verified or corroborated or their
significance appraised, and that, because of
this need for speed, inaccurate reports are
an occasional and inevitable hazard.
My
concern is more with the lack of balance,
the writing up and exaggeration of spectacular
but often quite insignificant events,
particularly in the news headlines.
I am
not, however, charging the B.B.C. with any
lapse quite so blatant as one headline in a
midday edition of the Evening Standard
("Another night of terror in Hong Kong")
which bore no relation whatsoever to the
contents of the report that followed or to
the official reports received in telegrams
that morning in London covering the night
in question.
I must stress the point the Governor
makes in the penultimate paragraph of his
letter about how much there is at stake in
Hong Kong at the present time. Situated as
the Colony is on the borders of China, a
/powerful
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