ENG-1978 — Page 248

THE MEDIA

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of outlets that include leading book stores, City District Offices and District Offices in the New Territories.

Public Relations Division

The major function of the Public Relations Division is to promote understanding and improve relationships between the government and the people. Its main responsibility is to help explain government policies on the one hand, and on the other to reflect public opinion to government departments as expressed in the news media.

The division publishes a daily English tabloid, The Gist, summarising news items and reports on public affairs from Chinese newspapers, and every week produces Opinion, a review of Chinese editorial comment. Both are distributed to senior government officials and copies are available at a moderate charge to the public.

The division draws the attention of government departments to letters published in the correspondence columns of newspapers. In addition, research papers based on newspapers and magazines are prepared to keep the government in touch with important issues of special significance.

Hong Kong residents living abroad, and Hong Kong seamen serving in various parts of the world, are kept informed of events in Hong Kong by a 12-page bi-weekly newspaper in Chinese, the Hong Kong News Digest. The division also produces an English news-sheet, The Week in Hong Kong, to keep people overseas up to date on local events.

The Overseas Public Relations Section, established in 1977, assists visiting journal- ists and film teams, and maintains liaison with news agencies and overseas journalists based in Hong Kong.

Departmental Units

Much progress has been made in establishing departmental units to improve the flow of information to the news media and to promote a closer relationship with the public. There are 16 units functioning in 15 departments - Agriculture and Fisheries, Civil Aviation, Trade Industry and Customs, Education, Fire Services, Housing, Labour, Medical and Health, New Territories Administration, Royal Hong Kong Police Force, Prisons, Public Works, 'Social Welfare, Transport, and Urban Services. In addition, there is a unit to service the various branches of the Government Secre- tariat, a unit in the Security Branch to co-ordinate news media and publicity activities for anti-narcotics work, and an information officer in the UMELCO Office.

The units serving the Police, Housing, Trade Industry and Customs, and the Urban Services Departments have been expanded to provide a fuller information service. There are plans to expand units in other departments.

The centralised resources of GIS are available to departmental units, which receive help in arranging press facilities, publicity campaigns, exhibitions and displays, and the production of publications and films.

London Office

The Information Section of the Hong Kong Government Office in London works in collaboration with the Government Information Services. The section keeps the British media informed of all newsworthy developments in Hong Kong that come within the