TNAG-1555-FCO40-2119-Broadcasting-in-Hong-Kong-1986 — Page 327

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6. The next Services to be reviewed in detail were the Central European Service, (Polish, Hungarian, Czech/Slovak and Finnish) in May, English by Radio and Television in September, the African Service (Hausa, Somali, Swahili, Portuguese and World Service African Alternative) in December and the Arabic Service in February 1986.

Possible Changes to the Prescription

7.

Mr Barrington referred to the agreement at the last Prescription Committee meeting that proposals for new Korean and Khmer Services should be examined when the new Hong Kong relay station (due to become operational in 1987/88) was nearing completion. The BBC had subsequently said, because

there was a lead in time of about 18 months for any new

Service, decisions needed to be taken in 1986. He also referred to the proposal at the December 1984 Prescription Committee meeting that an Amharic Service should be

reconsidered in 1986. He asked for views on these Services

and, in the context of Hong Kong, the possibility of increasing Mandarin and Cantonese to make use of the extra resources available to the BBC from their windfall savings (see paragraph 3).

8. Dr Wilson said there was no strong case for Khmer based

on the evidence of potential audience and its access to short wave radios. On Korean, although the Secretary of

State had expressed reservations about the merits of a new Korean Service in the context of the Planning Staff paper on

The Two Koreas, Dr Wilson considered the case a reasonably

good one, particularly in the context of making best use of

the new facilities being built in Hong Kong.

This was

generally agreed. In Dr Wilson's view an increase in

Mandarin was of paramount importance once audibility was

improved and it was right that the increase should

concentrate on Mandarin rather than Cantonese. After

discussion it was agreed, to recommend to Ministers that

when the Hong Kong relay was built and subject to the BBC

being able to absorb the costs, the BBC should plan to

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