TNAG-2276-FCO40-3275-Hong-Kong-and-the-media-1991 — Page 44

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1.

The BBC World Service TV have said that a letter on these lines would meet their and Hutchison's requirements (though they have not seen the text). Our objective is to give moral support to this BBC World Service TV/Hutchison project without committing ourselves to intervene on their behalf with governments of third countries in any particular circumstances. Hutchison/BBC WS TV could well ask us to intervene if, eg, receiption of their transmissions was blocked by a government. Whether we would in fact wish to do so would depend on the nature of the difficulty and the circumstances in which it arose, and wider aspects of our relations with the country concerned. We have discussed paragraph 3 of the draft with the Legal Advisers who confirm that it implies no obligation on us to intervene.

2. It is encouraging that the companies seem prepared to go ahead with this project, on the basis of the letter of comfort from us and the Hong Kong Government's indication of readiness to consider a proposal on subscription TV and to help on uplinking BBC World Service radio to the Hutchison satellite despite Hong Kong's unwillingness to lift the restriction on Cantonese broadcasting for the time being.

3.

We should of course be prepared to provide a similar letter of comfort for ITN's overseas news service should they ask for one.

9 July 1991

Rosemary Spencer

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