TNAG-1749-FCO40-2468-Visit-by-Sir-Geoffrey-Howe--Secretary-of-State-for-Foreign-a-1988 — Page 13

}

Mr McLaren

CONFIDENTIAL

Bu with (212)

From:

CJR Meyer, News

1KB 027/3

Date:

2 June 1988

CC:

PS

SECRETARY OF STATE'S VISIT TO HONG KONG: MEDIA

Mr Hum, Hong Kong

Dept

213

1.

We agreed that I should record some conclusions drawn from the

visit.

2.

Press conference. I was struck by the air of trepidation before-hand in Government House. In the event it went smoothly. It could have been about 10 minutes shorter and would still have covered all the ground. I certainly have had more difficult press conferences to handle elsewhere in the world. Fortunately we had two good cards to play. First, the Secretary of State gave journalists a strong story at the outset in his opening statement. Second, having run himself in briefing British journalists in London, the Secretary of State was never outflanked by questions and clearly impressed journalists with his authority and detailed grip of the subject. The Hong Kong press may have a unique piranha-like quality. But give them a story, field their questions with authority, and run the press conference firmly and they appear to respond like journalists anywhere else.

2.

I wonder if there is greater scope for background briefing by. · Hong Kong Government officials of the local media. While there, I sensed a self-fulfilling prophecy: that it was not worth trying to brief Hong Kong journalists because they would only react irresponsibly; therefore, as they were not used to being taken into the confidence of Government House, they wrote irresponsibly. This maybe does the Kong Kong Government's information effort a great disservice. I was not there long enough to make an informed judgement. But I was struck by the fact that unlike our posts elsewhere, no effort was made to put me in touch with the local British media; and, despite our requirements having been telegraphed beforehand, neither I nor my PA was provided with the usual list of local British journalists with their telephone numbers. In fact it suited me not to do background briefing, when I would have come under pressure to reveal our hand on the refugee problem and to give a detailed analysis of the first draft of the Basic Law. But the idea of unattributable briefing simply seemed outside the experience of Government House and the Government Information Service. When I did meet some of the British journalists at the lunch on the first day, the last thing that they seemed to expect was that I should want to make myself available to them.

Photo opportunities. Arrangements for these need to be looked at carefully in light of our experience at the refugee camps. The

4.

CONFIDENTIAL