TNAG-2276-FCO40-3275-Hong-Kong-and-the-media-1991 — Page 29

Foreign & Commonwealth Office

London SW1 2AH

10 July 1991

Mr R Li

Hutchison Europe Ltd 9 Queen Street Mayfair

London

W1X 7PH

Dear Me Li.

ни

Thank you for your letter of 27 June, with the enclosed material about Hutchvision Ltd and your plans for a venture in association with BBC World Service Television (WSTV). I am grateful to you and Lord Derwent for calling on me personally to let me know in detail about this project.

I can confirm on behalf of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office that we warmly welcome the agreement between Hutchvision and the BBC for WSTV to provide a news and information channel for Star TV broadcasts across Asia from Asiasat. The Government has encouraged the BBC to take the commercial route in its efforts to establish and develop an international television service. The proposed venture in partnership with you is fully consistent with this policy, and we wish it every

success.

It is important that good, accurate and objective news and current affairs programmes from Britain, on both television and radio, should be available to the widest possible international audience. For this reason we are ready to provide diplomatic support to projects such as yours.

Your company will be aware that World Service Television, as part of the BBC, is bound by the provisions of the BBC's Royal Charter and the Licence and Agreement from the Home Secretary, and by the formal commitment of the BBC Board of Governors to maintain high broadcasting standards and impartiality in the treatment of news and matters of public policy. The BBC has earned a worldwide reputation for these qualities. You may be confident that the BBC will strive to apply them equally to the service to be provided for Star TV, which should greatly enhance the appeal and prestige of the proposed news channel.