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I also
3. I stressed that it was important for the BBC to work hard itself in Hong Kong to press its case with the authorities there. asked Mr Irwin whether he had any ideas about what the requested statement of support or letter of comfort for Hutchison might actually say. He said he had no specific text in mind, but he made one or two suggestions. He is hoping we can put something together
quickly.
4. On this point, although we have not spelled it all out for Lord Derwent and Mr Li, the difference between WSTV and the radio
World Service is of course not only that we directly fund and target
the latter ourselves, but that it is formally required to broadcast in the national interest, and works to guidelines to ensure that it does so. This must have an important bearing on our attitude and the degree of support and endorsement which we can provide. WSTV, as part of the BBC, is bound by the conditions of the Royal Charter and Licence and Agreement, and by the Board of Governors' commitment (contained in the Annex to the Licence and Agreement) to high
standards and impartiality. But this falls far short of the specific obligations of the radio WS, enshrined in its agreed
objectives, to provide a reliable, accurate and unbiased news
service, a balanced British view of developments, an accurate and
effective representation of British life, and so on.
5. I do not believe however that we should make too much of a meal
of this. In practice, WSTV will be providing
much the same
-
sort of news product for an international TV audience as the World
Service does in radio broadcasting. It would be better if we could
exercise the same influence on it as we can with the WS, but we have
forgone that option in telling the BBC to take the commercial road
in international TV broadcasting. We still have a strong
information policy and commercial interest in the extension to a
wide international audience of high quality British TV news and
current affairs programmes, whether by WSTV or any other comparable
service. Moreover the prospective Hutchison deal, because of the audience within Asisat's reach, is potentially a crucial breakthrough in this respect. If successful it would establish for
the first time on a major international scale a serious UK
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