TNAG-1555-FCO40-2119-Broadcasting-in-Hong-Kong-1986 — Page 329

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FCO Broadcasting Priorities

11. A draft paper putting the individual language services in order of current priority, as recommended in the recent

Perry Report, was discussed. It was agreed that the paper should be amended to give high priority to Persian (which was important, with Pashto, at least so long as the Afghanistan situation was unresolved) and medium priority to

Cantonese, Vietnamese and Thai (see Annex). The World

Service in English should be in a super category above the

rest. It was agreed that Finnish must be considered the

most vulnerable low priority service. The list of

priorities was to some extent a flexible one, and was open to change in the light of changed circumstances, but it

could be a useful general guide, particularly of the

vernacular services in the lowest category. The list should

be reviewed at each Prescription Committee meeting.

Audibility Programme

12.

Mrs Wright reviewed progress on implementation of the current audibility programme. It was more or less on

schedule with the exception of Orfordness, which had been

set back by the delay in obtaining planning permission and

in the BBC's assumption (from 1 April) of responsibility for

running FCO relay stations. Three transmitters originally

destined for Orfordness were now being installed at Daventry

aimed at the same target (Soviet Union and Eastern Europe)

and should be operational in 1987/88. Two additional

transmitters were being installed on Ascension Island to improve the signal to sub-Saharan West Africa, which should

be operational in 1987/88. The Hong Kong relay should be completed in 1987/88 and the Seychelles relay in 1988/89.

An additional 250 kW ex-Daventry transmitter in Singapore as

the first step in replacing the existing 100kW transmitters

to improve signal strength should also be operational in

1987/88.

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