HKK 13/2
Mr Laird
Mhn Wilfre
You will with to her than popers
as possible. I han at depen clusies the upar. Extarir
an fom
You told me yesterday afternoon that Mr Wilford was this afternoon seeing Mr Dennis of RTV. I am accordingly submitting these papers in something of a hurry since they reached me only yesterday afternoon and I have not had time to read them thoroughly.
I
Z
2. We have received the attached advance copy of a comprehensive memorandum for Executive Council on the future of broadcasting in Hong Kong. The memorandum covers the submission of a voluminous report, a copy of which is in the Annex to this file. There have been various references in the papers on the copyright file to the deliberations of this Working Party which was appointed in December 1970.
3. Although the Report is extremely long, I find it very readable and very interesting. Had we been in possession two
or three years ago of all the factual information that it contains, life would have been a lot easier.
4. I have been through the Report very hurriedly and have sidelined a number of passages which are of particular interest. To my mind, those paragraphs of the Report which are of the most immediate interest to us are paras 293-324, together with paras 42-47 of the Executive Council memorandum,
5. The nub of the matter is that the Working Party (with one dissenting voice, that of the representative of the Deputy Financial Secretary) recommended that when RTV's current exclusive licence to provide a wired television service expires in April 1973, then the Company should be granted a wireless television licence by negotiation subject to the same terms and conditions as would be applied to TVR. The representative of the Deputy Financial Secretary, however, considered that the award of the wireless licence in question should be by public tender which is the normal procedure in such cases.
6.
When the matter went to Executive Council, the Council over-ruled the Working Party's recommendation on this particular point and decided that public tenders be invited for the second wireless licence (the first such licence being that already held by TVR). It is apparent, therefore, from para 47 of the Executive Council memorandum that the views of the Establishment have gained the day. I have flagged the two passages in the Report which related to this particular issue.
7.
>
"
understood you to say that Mr Dennis was not coming to see Mr Wilford to discuss the subject of copyright. My guess, therefore, is that he is coming to raise the question referred to above. If this proves to be the case, then it would be interesting to learn how Mr Dennis has got to hear of the Executive Council
/decision
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