TNAG-2277-FCO40-3276-Hong-Kong-and-the-media-1991 — Page 105

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Pr. Media (147)

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4 October 1991

Mr. Richard Hoare Private Secretary

Government House

Hong Kong

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Ms Dance/ The Searth of stake (helpfith) hed a go

at Sir D Ford on His Heme

Further to my fax letter of 3 September about feeding Hong Kong media coverage to the UK media, Ranjit Peiris has reminded me that many of the people who write the stories here are, in fact, directly exposed to Hong Kong thinking and mood. For example, we know that Jonathan Mirsky ("Observer") rings his Hong Kong contacts very frequently, even though he is currently in the USA at Dartmouth University. Danny Gittings (SCMP) sends material to his father at "The Guardian" and the News International people (e.g. "The Times") get their own feed from their paper in Hong Kong (SCMP). Michael Jones, Political Editor of "The Sunday Times" maintains his personal contacts in Hong Kong from the time when he was a stringer for the SCMP. Simon Scott Plummer ("The Daily Telegraph") and Sarah Helms ("The Independent") are regular "callers up" of Peter Randall and Ranjit Peiris.

I don't think, therefore, that

that we need worry that most diplomatic and foreign correspondents based in London who write stories about Hong Kong, are not aware of the views of the silent majority in Hong Kong though, of course, they may care to ignore them. Nevertheless we shall continue to present the full picture, the rounded story, to our media contacts. In this connection you may like to know that before Richard Davy wrote his leader in "The Independent" on 16 September (copy attached),

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