Mr
Beany Into. D.
RESTRICTED
(separate copies)
Heads of: SEAD
FED
Mkco 388/1
HKD
Planners
Director of Research
FROM: R J S Muir
Information Department
DATE: 21 July 1989
Miss Spencer Mr McLaren
Audrey
(7)
I win PLIK InfoD.
go.
am
√2717
BBC WORLD SERVICE: REVIEW OF FAR EASTERN SERVICES: WEDNESDAY 2 AUGUST
1. You will know from my letter of 5 May to certain Posts in your area that we shall shortly be reviewing the BBC Far Eastern Service (comprising Japanese, Mandarin, Cantonese, Indonesian, Malay, Thai and Vietnamese vernaculars). This is one of our regular three-yearly reviews of individual World Service activities prescribed by the FCO. The aim is to reach an assessment of the effectiveness of these Services in terms of the audiences they reach and of the objectives set for them. The date agreed with the BBC is Wednesday 2 August.
2. I attach an agenda, which is largely self-explanatory, together with copies of the background information referred to under agenda item 1, comprising material provided by the BBC and a precis of comments made by Posts, which we have sent to the BBC.
3. The results of this meeting will be an important input for the negotiation of the next BBC Triennium - involving a bid in the 1990 PES round. It will therefore be important to form a clear FCO official level assessment of the contributions these vernaculars make to our foreign policy objectives. Except for Mandarin (high priority) and Japanese (low priority), they are all currently medium FCO broadcasting priorities. We need to consider whether these priorities are appropriate in relation to all the other services (list attached which the BBC has). In the light of Posts' comments, we also need to consider the implications of asking the BBC to close the Japanese and possibly Malay Services. On the latter, the BBC will argue strongly (a) that the Post's judgement is subjective and (b) that the service might be urgently required in the future and would then be difficult to re-start. For your background information, you should be
RB8ABN/1
RESTRICTED
Page 90Page 91
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.