TNAG-2602-FCO40-3790-Administrative-support-for-Chris-Patten--new-Governor-of-Hon-1992 — Page 90

CONFIDENTIAL

Options

3. One consequence of this arrangement is that, while the

Governor himself does a lot of on the record media

interviews, information strategies co-ordinated from the

Chief Secretary's office. If the new Governor wanted his

own Press Adviser to ensure that the Government House view

was put to journalists both in Hong Kong and

internationally, the two main options would be:

- To bring in a UK based official who would operate from

Government House and use the GIS as an executive arm in the

same way as the information co-ordinator currently does.

Careful arrangements would be needed to ensure consistency between the line being taken by the Governor's Press

Adviser, and the rest of the HKG information machine,

particularly the Information Co-ordinator. scope for friction here.

There would be

The Governor could bring a HKG official into

Government House. This could either be a member of GIS with

previous experience abroad, or the Information Co-ordinator himself. This would be less disruptive than bringing in an outside official. But it would probably not be possible for

the Information Co-ordinator to combine an active role as

the Governor's personal press spokesman with the

co-ordination of overall government information policy.

would therefore probably need to be replaced in the

Chief Secretary's office.

He

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