ENG-2000 — Page 413

COMMUNICATIONS, THE MEDIA AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

The Press

The Hong Kong press at the end of the year included 32 Chinese-language dailies, five English-language dailies and seven English-langauge newspapers publishing either six or five days a week, five bilingual dailies and six in other languages. Of the Chinese-language dailies, 23 cover mainly local and overseas general news; six specialise in finance; and the rest cover entertainment news, especially television and cinema news. The larger papers include overseas Chinese communities in their distribution networks, and some have editions printed outside Hong Kong, in particular in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and Australia.

One English daily publishes a daily Braille edition, in conjunction with the Hong Kong Society for the Blind. Three English dailies, six Chinese dailies and six bilingual dailies are published on the Internet. Four news agency bulletins - issued in Chinese, English and Japanese - are registered as newspapers.

Hong Kong is the base for regional publications such as Asiaweek and the Far Eastern Economic Review. The Financial Times, Asian Wall Street Journal, USA Today, International Herald Tribune and the Nihon Keizai Shimbun are also printed here.

Several organisations represent and cater for people working in the news media in Hong Kong. The Newspaper Society of Hong Kong represents Chinese and English newspaper proprietors. It is empowered to act in matters that affect the interests of its members.

The Hong Kong Journalists Association is the only industry-wide union of journalists in the HKSAR and one of the most active. Formed in 1968, it has 600 members and promotes the right to freedom of expression and focuses on a range of press freedom and ethics concerns. Among media organisations formed more recently are the Hong Kong News Executives' Association, the Hong Kong Federation of Journalists, and the Hong Kong Press Photographers Association. The long- established Foreign Correspondents' Club offers its members social facilities and a range of professional activities, including news conferences, briefings and films.

The Mass Communication Training Board of the Vocational Training Council continued to organise upgrading training for people working in the media, advertising and public relations sectors. An allocation of $290,000 from the council enabled the board to arrange various courses, talks and seminars for members of professional bodies such as the Hong Kong News Executives' Association, the Hong Kong Journalists Association, the Hong Kong Advertisers Association, the Association of Accredited Advertising Agents of Hong Kong and the Hong Kong Public Relations Professionals' Association. Popular courses during the year were a Symposium on e-Communication and a 24-hour Battlefield on the Net, an advanced on-line course providing training to journalists on how to utilise the Internet more effectively for research.

Information Policy

The Secretary for Home Affairs has overall responsibility for policy formulation on information and related matters, while the Director of Information Services advises the Government on the presentation of its policies, and on public relations matters generally, within Hong Kong and overseas. The main aims are to ensure an open exchange of information in the community and to keep the media fully informed.

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