TNAG-2275-FCO40-3274-Hong-Kong-and-the-media-1991 — Page 71

Mr Burns

CONFIDENTIAL

H&B 301/1

FILE

FROM: A R Paul

кр

Hong Kong Department

DATE: 1 March 1991

cc: Mr McLaren

Mr Davies, FED

Mr Cornish, News Dept

Ms Saunders o/r

HONG KONG: RELATIONS WITH THE PRESS

We need to plan a campaign to educate opinion and the media in the UK, particularly in connection with the Secretary of State's proposed visit.

1.

2.

Any attempt to engage the press will inevitably result in more questioning of our policy on Hong Kong. But this may be no bad thing. When interest in Hong Kong is low, only commentators with a particular axe to grind (usually hostile to HMG) contribute to the debate. If we can

encourage neutral commentators to write, the result should be a better balance in the national press.

3.

After discussion with News Department, we have come up with the following preliminaryideas, which will need to be discussed with Special Advisers and others before submitting to Ministers. It would be useful if we could send a

telegram to the Governor before his visit to London, in order to be able to discuss further with him during that visit.

NESAKN/1

CC

CONFIDENTIAL