ENG-1963 — Page 358

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PUBLICATIONS, BROADCASTING AND FILMS

publish their own papers and although some fail, it is this constant change and development which creates the lively and varied atmosphere of the Hong Kong press as a whole.

The major newspapers maintain high standards in their presenta- tion of affairs and world news is extensively covered by a very wide use of international news agencies. Generally recognized as the leading Chinese-language daily newspapers are the Sing Tao (Island Star), the Wah Kiu Yat Po (Overseas Chinese Daily News) and the Kung Sheung Yat Po (Industrial and Commercial Daily) all three of which also publish afternoon editions. These three papers, like the popular Sing Pao which has no afternoon edition, are generally non-partisan in politics. Orthodox Chinese communist policies are voiced in the Ta Kung Pao, the Wen Wei Pao and the New Evening Post while the Hong Kong Times speaks for the Nationalist regime in Taiwan. The overall circulation of the Chinese-language press is in excess of 600,000 but precise figures are hard to come by. However, a growing number of papers are publishing audited circulation figures and these indicate an availa- bility of newspapers at the rate of about 17 copies for every hundred people. Figures quoted recently by an official of the International Press Institute were 40 papers for every hundred people in Japan and about one per hundred throughout the rest of Asia, excluding Mainland China. The figure for Great Britain is 51 per hundred.

The Newspaper Society of Hong Kong continues to represent some of the common interests of 18 of the Colony's leading newspapers despite the fact that the very diversity of Hong Kong newspapers would appear to militate against any great degree of co-operation on their day-to-day problems. Hong Kong is still re- garded as a good base of Far East operations by leading inter- national news agencies. Important newspapers and magazines from all parts of the world also consider Hong Kong a logical centre in which to base staff correspondents for Far East news coverage. While the events of the year kept many of these correspondents out of the Colony covering stories in other parts of the region, their permanent establishment in Hong Kong does ensure regular and well-informed attention to the Colony's affairs in news- papers, magazines and on cinema and television screens all over the world. Most of these journalists are members of the Foreign