TNAG-2768-FCO40-3985-Hong-Kong-and-the-media-interviews--press-briefings-and-the--1993 — Page 24

SECRET

SECRET

FM FCO

TO IMMEDIATE HONG KONG

TELNO 772

OF 231603Z AUGUST 93

INFO IMMEDIATE PEKING, UKREP JLG HONG KONG

146)

173617

MDHOAN 7126

30111

PERSONAL FOR ACTING GOVERNOR FROM RICKETTS, HKD

TALKS WITH THE CHINESE ON ELECTORAL ISSUES: BRITISH PRESS

BRIEFING THE

1. Robin McLaren and I were both struck, on tuning back into the negotiations after three weeks away, by the volume of material surfacing in the Hong Kong press about the substance of the talks. Apart from the worrying Leaks to John Ellison, most of this seems to be coming from Chinese sources, and has continued following the Ninth Round (as Hong Kong telnos 32 and 33 to Peking show).

haphazard way.

2.

The British press pick up some of this in a rather

I discussed with Robin on the flight home from Peking after the Ninth Round whether our own scrupulous adherence to maintaining the confidentiality of the negotiations was not beginning to play against our interests, since the Chinese side's version of the negotiations was dominating public perceptions. 3. There are obvious dangers in any background briefing of the press. Robin McLaren does not feel able to take the Peking-based British press corps into his confidence and in Hong Kong it would we imagine be difficult to brief British correspondents without also talking to the local press, which would obviously be very risky. But we think that rather than leaving the field entirely to the Chinese, it would be worth briefing at official Level a small number of the more serious journalists who follow Hong Kong at this end (eg Ray Whitaker of the Independent, Alex Nicholl of the FT, Michael Jones of the Sunday Times and Rosemary Righter of the Times). We believe that they can be relied on to disguise the source of their information. But we would also propose to brief them individually over the next two weeks or so to avoid a rash of similar stories which would point more clearly to an official briefing.

4.

We would obviously emphasise the importance of no attribution

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