TNAG-1555-FCO40-2119-Broadcasting-in-Hong-Kong-1986 — Page 341

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I.

ANNEX A

Former Ranking of FCO broadcasting priorities

Extract from Planning Staff FCO Priorities Paper May 1985

13.5 BBC External Services

over 50% of direct costs of vernacular services are spent on broadcasts to the Soviet bloc and other globally significant areas (eg China and the Arab world) where sufficient and unbiased information is often not available from local sources;

about 20% is devoted to services aimed at major Commonwealth countries (such as India, Kenya,

Nigeria), other traditional partners in the developing world, and "front-line" states, all of which are high priority targets.

For a vernacular service to be justified it is not sufficient to note that a country is important. The usefulness to HMG of BBC overseas services depends largely on the local availability of information and the size of the audience. With this in mind, the following services, whose direct costs are about £2.8m, appear the most marginal to HMG's interests:

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Somali

Portuguese for Brazil Burmese

Indonesian/Malay

Japanese

Finnish Greek Turkish

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French for Europe German

Cutting

It is always difficult either to get the pattern of BBC broadcasting changed, or to re-establish the capability to broadcast in a language once staff have been dispersed. some small services would render them scarcely viable. Nevertheless, there may still be a case for reducing slightly their number. BBC figures (which however appear to comprise only marginal costs) suggest that savings might be relatively small. Information Department consider that obtaining a more detailed insight into BBC costings is an important priority.

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