TNAG-2766-FCO40-3983-Hong-Kong-and-the-media-interviews--press-briefings-and-the--1993 — Page 131

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Mr Ricketts, HKD

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BBC WORLD SERVICE TRIENNIUM 1994-1997: PROGRAMME / PLAN

1.

attaches

Please refer to Mr R Davies' minute of 29 December 1992, on the BBC World Service's draft Programme Plan for the next Triennium. (Mr H Davies has his own copy: I attach a copy for Mr Ricketts.)

2.

Mr Davies has asked for comments on the BBC's proposals, to reach him not later than 15 January. I think it would be sensible to send him a consolidated set of comments relating to the Northern Asia Command.

If you could let me have your comments I shall amalgamate these in a single minute to him.

3.

My immediate reaction to the BBC's proposals is as follows:

1

I

1

I do not find the BBC document an impressive one. There is a lot of unconvincing and unexplained media jargon, and the political judgements about East Asia are frankly jejune;

the section on services in Mandarin and Cantonese is vague and unfocussed. No clear statement is made about the evolution of the area and the relevance of BBC broadcasting to this process. What role do the BBC seek to play in the process of reform and opening up in China? What are the implications of the return of Hong Kong to China in 1997? the BBC's intentions for Taiwan (which receives no more than a passing reference in the text)? The document does not give us proper answers to any of these questions;

none-the-less the BBC is right to identify China as a priority area for the next Triennium, even if it fails to make a proper case for doing so. I can see the arguments for setting up a production centre in Peking, and for increasing transmission time in Mandarin if the resources are available for this. None-the-less if resources were freely transferable between all our activities in the region, I am not