新聞處年報 Information Services Department Annual Report 1960-1961

HONG KONG

ANNUAL DEPARTMENTAL REPORT

BY THE

DIRECTOR OF INFORMATION SERVICES

FOR THE

FINANCIAL YEAR 1960-61

PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY W. F. C. JENNER, GOVERNMENT PRINTER

AT THE GOVERNMENT PRESS, JAVA ROAD, HONG KONG

EXCHANGE RATES

When dollars are quoted in this Report, they are, unless otherwise stated, Hong Kong dollars. The official rate for conversion to pound sterling is HK$16 £1 (HK$1=1s. 3d.). The official rate for conversion to U.S. dollars is HK$5.714=US$1 (based on £1=US$2.80).

GENERAL

STAFF

PRESS DIVISION

PRESS ROOM

RADIO NEWS ROOM

PUBLICITY DIVISION

FILMS

PUBLICATIONS

•

POSTERS

FEATURES

PHOTOGRAPHS

LIBRARY

ADVERTISING

DISTRIBUTION

FILM CENSORSHIP

CONTENTS

Paragraphs

1 - 4

5 - 10

11 - 13

14 - 20

•

21 - 22

24 - 25

26 - 27

29 - 30

31 - 32

35 - 36

GENERAL

THE implementation of Government's policy decision, announced in mid-1959, to expand the scope and range of official publicity, both local and overseas, was the main pre-occupation of the Information Services Department during the year ending 31st March, 1961. Although provision was made for realistic increases in both operational budget and manpower, the recruitment of suitably trained personnel to fill the new posts proved disappointingly slow, and by the end of the period under review the staff in the department numbered 74 as against the establishment of 97 provided for in the Estimates. The staff shortage was particularly acute in the Press Division and in the senior ranks of the department's administration, but despite these short-comings the financial year 1960-61 was a period of solid achievement for the expanding Government Information Services.

　　　　2. Basically the task of the department is to keep both the people of Hong Kong and people overseas accurately informed of Government's achievements and aims. This apparently simple formula covers a wide range of activities from news about textiles or typhoons to mass cam- paigns about fire prevention or farming. To meet these commitments the Department is divided into two main working divisions. The Press division is responsible for a round-the-clock minute-to-minute dissemina- tion of news to newspapers and broadcasting organizations both in Hong Kong and overseas. The Publicity division is geared to the production of films, newsreels, photo-features, photographs, books, leaflets, posters, cinema-slides, and is responsible for the administration of film censorship and the Government advertising unit.

　　　　3. In addition to this day-to-day work, constant demands upon the advice and services of the department's senior personnel were made by an unprecedented number of visiting journalists, radio commentators and television personalities who came to Hong Kong during the year. Besides the many briefings which this department gave these visitors, and the inevitable tours to different parts of the Colony which followed, the department also provided all press inquirers with factual written material, pictures, maps and illustrations of every kind. During the first four months of the year alone, nearly 100 such visitors to the Colony called on the department, and cuttings which were subsequently received

showed that the majority of those who had received such assistance had been favourably impressed by the way Hong Kong was tackling her problems, and had so reported to readers and audiences that added up to many millions of people.

　　　　4. Although the department is primarily concerned with publicizing the affairs of Hong Kong, everything possible is done to promote knowl- edge of the United Kingdom and Commonwealth, and maximum use is made of material supplied by the Central Office of Information, London, for this purpose. The department's film library for example, which is stocked by the Central Office of Information, issued nearly 3,000 films during the year for exhibition by clubs, schools and other institutions, including a weekly newsreel for Rediffusion's Hong Kong television circuit.

STAFF

　　　　5. The Director of the department was on leave for the first six months of the period under review, but he returned to Hong Kong in October 1960.

6. The appointment in August 1960 of an Information Officer to the Hong Kong Government Office in London was a new departure in developing the Colony's public relations overseas. The officer concerned, who is an experienced London newspaperman with an interest in Hong Kong and its affairs of many years' standing, visited the Colony shortly after his appointment and spent two months familiarizing himself with almost every aspect of local activity.

　　　　7. The difficulties of recruiting staff have already been mentioned, but even so a number of new appointments were made. Early in February 1961 a new Deputy Director arrived in Hong Kong on transfer from Aden to take over the duties from the existing deputy who was retiring on the expiration of his agreement.

8. A few months earlier a Publications Editor, with the grade of Principal Information Officer, was recruited from Singapore where he had been employed for a number of years on the editorial staff of the Straits Times.

　　　　9. In addition, 10 local appointments were made, some on transfer within the department, to the grade of Information Officer, covering a wide range of the department's activities.

10. In February 1961 one of the two locally appointed Information Officers in the press division left for the United Kingdom to join a four

months training course arranged by the Colonial Office for overseas Information Officers.

PRESS DIVISION

　　　　11. During the year there was a radical change in the organization and work of the Press division. A radio news room was set up as a separate unit within the division, necessitating a number of internal staff changes, and a continuous shift system was introduced. Both English and Chinese speaking officers are now on duty call at any hour of the day or night-a service primarily designed to assist newspapermen who require information when the majority of other Government depart- ments have closed. The division, through its radio news room is responsible for providing frequent news bulletins for broadcast by the Colony's three radio stations, and the introduction of this round-the- clock working has helped to expand these services.

　　　　12. Another notable aid to the efficient working and to the speed of transmission of information to broadcasting and press organizations is the teleprinter links which were established during the year between the department's news room, the three radio stations and a number of leading newspapers and news agencies. By means of the teleprinter network, news of importance and urgent announcements can be trans- mitted automatically to the press outlets within a matter of minutes (with a consequent saving of time in making individual telephone calls to the organizations concerned which was the old method of communica- tion).

　　　　13. Towards the end of the period under review a teleprinter link was installed in the Royal Observatory which enables all weather news for broadcasting and press to be transmitted direct to the department's news network. This service saves the Observatory staff from having to answer 40 to 50 telephone inquiries from newspapers and radio stations during the course of the average day, and from two to three times that number during typhoons, which are common in the vicinity of Hong Kong between May and October.

PRESS ROOM

　　　　14. Recruitment of suitably trained staff to fill new posts provided under the department's expansion programme and to offset the loss of a number of trained officers who were transferred to the radio news room moved slowly. Despite this staff shortage, both editorial and clerical,

operational efficiency was not impaired, due mainly to the stream-lining of operational procedure and the willingness with which existing staff worked long hours of arduous duty to meet the constant commitments of shift schedules.

　　　　15. The press section's daily bulletins of Government official news continued to grow in scope, and the daily bulletin, which is issued in both the English and Chinese languages and often runs to eight or more pages a day, contained during the year a total of 5,955 items of local news-an increase of nearly 2,000 items over the previous year.

16. During the same period well over 1,000 photographs, plans, maps and sketch-drawings were also distributed to the local press. The use of this material was remarkably high a total of well over 30,000 acceptances of written material by local editors was recorded, and about one-third of the illustrated material distributed locally was accepted for publication by a wide range of papers.

　　　　17. In addition to the press bulletin, the section distributed a sepa- rate daily information sheet of Police news and road safety news. The production of a daily summary of translations into English from the principal Chinese newspapers continued to be another major activity of the press room during the period under review. Despite staff limitations this summary, which averages about eight pages per issue, continued to be published daily and many thousands of items were translated and summarized for inclusion in it.

　　　　18. The press section also maintained as a separate service a con- siderable output of United Kingdom and Commonwealth news which is received by this department from the Central Office of Information, London, and which is edited in this department and issued to the local press at regular intervals as the 'London Press Service'. News and articles included in this service were extracted from the Central Office of Information's 'Feastco' news service dealing with Far Eastern affairs, and from 'Colco' news service dealing with Commonwealth and colonial affairs, and items re-issued by this department received a wide coverage in the local newspapers. A feature article service of United Kingdom origin was also re-issued by the press room at regular intervals, and proved a popular service with Hong Kong editors.

　　　　19. The press section maintained close liaison throughout the year with the Press Relations Officers of the three Armed Services, and also with the British Council representative in Hong Kong, whose press material is also distributed by this office.

20. A number of press facility visits and press conferences were arranged during the year. Press inquiries by telephone showed no sign of abating and, indeed, in most months showed a marked increase, indicative of the rapidly increasing pressure of work which confronts the section.

RADIO NEWS ROOM

　　　　21. With the introduction of a round-the-clock shift system of working, the radio news section was able to expand its service of news bulletins broadcast by the Colony's three radio stations, and the radio news room can now produce news bulletins more or less on request from the start of transmission at 7.00 a.m. until the close down at midnight. A special daily news bulletin broadcast at 6.00 p.m. and highlighting local news was introduced for the benefit of the Colony's broadcasting listeners. By meeting requests from the three radio stations for special bulletins to fit in with their individual schedules, the daily output of the radio news room has increased from three to eight bulle- tins daily in both the English and Chinese languages.

22. Reference has already been made to the introduction of the new teleprinter circuit. On the broadcasting side it has provided a permanent link between the radio news room and the three broadcasting stations. It has also largely eliminated the necessity for hand delivery of the finished bulletins from the news room to the radio stations and has made last minute news and weather information more readily available to the stations. The introduction of this circuit has improved the quality, value and topicality of the broadcast bulletins.

PUBLICITY DIVISION

23. The publicity division has both local and overseas commitments. Locally it is responsible for handling publicity campaigns of all Govern- ment Departments and for the production of posters, leaflets, films and other visual aids to promote a better understanding between the public and the Government. The division concentrates upon the production of newsreels, feature articles and photo-features for the dissemination of Hong Kong information abroad.

FILMS

24. During the year the most interesting development in the division was undoubtedly the start made in the use of the film unit as an information medium. Staff was recruited during the Spring and Summer

months of 1960 and by the Autumn the unit had got into its stride. By the end of the year four short films were completed explaining the aims of the 1961 Census to the community at large (these were shown in some 40 cinemas and on television in Hong Kong), and a 20-minute educational film to assist in the training of the 18,000 enumerators to be employed in census taking. The production of a 15-minute film on anti-Tuberculosis measures for the Medical and Health Department was also completed. The main activities of the unit, however, were directed towards newsreel production for distribution in either cinema or television news. Since there is no doubt that the short film is an invaluable medium for reaching large sections of Hong Kong's population and an excellent vehicle for projecting Hong Kong overseas, the unit had a very full programme of newsreel shorts prepared for 1961, and during the early part of the year was producing newsreel items at the rate of approximately one in every three weeks. The distri- bution of these reels on a world-wide basis through the Central Office of Information, London, has met with considerable success. In most cases this department's productions have been accepted by six or more major newsreel and television distributors, such as Pathé, Movietone and M.G.M. distributing to the cinemas, and the British Commonwealth International newsfilm agency, U.P.I. Television and the U.S. Telenews distributing to television circuits in many countries. This wide accept- ance of our newsreel films by commercial agencies, coupled with full use of the material in officially sponsored reels such as 'British News' and 'British Television News' means that millions of cinema and television audiences both in Hong Kong and overseas, have the opportunity to view regularly film stories depicting many aspects of Hong Kong's problems and development. These official newsreel assignments covered a wide range of subjects, and during the period under review these included a story of the Shek Pik dam project and the moving of villagers to new modern homes in the New Territories, a story of farmers in the New Territories being assisted in the develop- ment of their farms with gifts of cattle and poultry; a survey of the 1961 Agricultural Show in Hong Kong, and the newsreel coverage of the 'Big Count'-the 1961 Census.

　　　　25. While the department's own film unit was being organized, a local documentary production company, Cathay Film Services (Hong Kong) Limited was invited by the department to make a half-hour Eastmancolour documentary on the Colony. The finished film was

received by the department towards the end of February 1961. In March the film was exhibited at the 8th Asian Film Festival in Manila and won the 'Golden Harvest Award' for the best documentary, and by the end of the year arrangements for the distribution of the film overseas on both a commercial and non-theatrical basis were well in hand.

PUBLICATIONS

26. Although leaflets stressing the evils of narcotics addiction or pointing out the Urban Council's Miss Ping On (Healthy Home) theme were produced in their tens of thousands, and others, devoted to ex- plaining the mysteries of census-taking, in hundreds of thousands, the most solid and satisfying job undertaken by the publicity division during the year was probably the production of a completely new edition of the Hong Kong booklet. Largely re-written and re-illustrated (about one-third of the photographs being in colour), the production of this booklet, which had a print-order of a quarter of a million copies, represented a distinct achievement for the Hong Kong printing industry. A few years ago such a publication could not have been undertaken in the Colony. (The original edition in 1954 of 190,000 copies was pro- duced in the United Kingdom).

27. The appointment of a Publications Editor in November 1960, did much to assist the expansion of this side of the department's work. Publications covered a wide range of subjects including a new Narcotics Report, a Police Recruiting booklet, a Storm Warning Card for the Royal Observatory, a brochure for Commonwealth Technical Training Week, pictorial work for the Colony Annual Report, and a host of other items of an equally varied nature.

POSTERS

28. The production unit or art department of the division, is one of the department's technical services which is shared by all sections of the department. The main function of the unit is poster production and within the period under review, 16 new posters were designed and produced. Many thousands of copies of each poster were printed and distributed over a wide area throughout the Colony. The list included an anti-diphtheria poster, two new anti-narcotics posters, a trade promo- tion poster, six Urban Services and public health posters, a road safety poster and special posters for the Police and Education Departments.

FEATURES

　　　　29. The programme for the production and distribution of magazine and newspaper feature articles overseas, which began for the first time during 1960 on a regular basis, was continued by the division's Features Writer throughout the period under review. These articles vary in length from 500 to 3,000 words and are usually accompanied by at least a dozen 10′′ × 8′′ glossy photographs. Colour transparencies are also included whenever possible. The articles explain Hong Kong's problems and achievements in terms of everyday life in the Colony, touching upon facets not normally encountered in other forms of Government publicity. They are distributed by British government agencies and commercial agents in all major countries and, because they must com- pete for space in the highly competitive, and lucrative magazine and newspaper feature fields, the emphasis at all times is on quality rather than quantity. The number of articles published overseas is now increas- ing very rapidly and, through syndication, many appear a dozen or more times in a single country. The syndication record is for Western Germany where an article on the Colony's ivory carving industry was published in 38 different newspapers and magazines.

　　　　30. In addition to his normal duties the Features Writer, together with the Publication Editor, carried out the majority of briefings of visiting overseas journalists, radio reporters and television commenta- tors during the year. At one time three television companies from the United Kingdom, United States and Australia were operating in the Colony simultaneously.

PHOTOGRAPHS

31. The photographic section, like the production unit is another of the department's technical services which is shared by all units within the department. Apart from supplying photographs for many publica- tions, posters and photo-features, the section concentrated upon the production of quality press photographs to enable the distribution of picture sets overseas to be started on a regular basis. Each set deals with a different subject and normally contains between one and two dozen 10′′ x 8′′ glossy prints. Each picture has a comprehensive caption of between 100 and 200 words, enabling them to be used either singly or as a 'spread'. These picture sets are proving very popular with over- seas publications both for immediate use, and for picture libraries for use with future stories about Hong Kong.

　　　32. In all, over 10,000 pictures were distributed overseas and locally during the year.

LIBRARY

　　　33. The division's library of photographs has now been completely re-organized and is maintained in the department's reference library which is shared by both the publicity and press divisions. The appoint- ment of a reference librarian during the year enabled the complete re-organization of the library facilities to be started. The library now has a collection of over 1,500 books which are made available not only to the department, but to journalists, other Government departments, . and in certain circumstances to members of the public. Much useful reference material continued to arrive in the library from the Central Office of Information, London.

ADVERTISING

　　　34. As in previous years the department was responsible for placing all Government advertising in the local newspapers. A total of 749 notices and advertisements were issued for publication.

DISTRIBUTION

　　　35. Work in the distribution section was to some extent hampered by the lack of a full-time distribution officer, which was one of the vacan- cies remaining unfilled at the end of the year. The section undertakes the distribution of all publicity material produced by the department, such as posters, books and pamphlets, in addition to the distribution of posters, literature and magazines received from the United Kingdom. The main function of the section is the running of the 16 mm film lending library which contains mostly English-language films supplied by the Central Office of Information, although local productions by the department are also being added to the library as they become available.

　　　36. During the 12 months under review, 2,974 films were issued by the library on loan and it is estimated that audiences totalled well over three quarters of a million people. One hundred and one new films were added to the library, and 27 obsolete films were destroyed. British television news was received by air from London each week and was passed on to Rediffusion television for local screening.

FILM CENSORSHIP

　　　37. There are 73 cinemas in Hong Kong and the law requires that all films must be viewed by a Film Censor prior to public exhibition. It is one of the tasks of the Information Services Department to carry out this work and the film censorship section controls two theatres within the department, one for 16 mm and one for 35 mm films. Films censored between 1st April, 1960, and 31st March, 1961, totalled 3,630 and details are shown in the appendix to this report. Apart from a large increase in Cantonese films and television feature films, the figures are similar to those for 1959-60.

July 1961.

J. L. MURRAY,

Director of Information Services.

Total submitted

Germany

Greece

Country of Origin

FEATURE FILMS (35 mm)

China (Mainland) Czechoslovakia

France

...

Franco Italian

---

APPENDIX

FILMS CENSORED DURING THE PERIOD 1.4.60 TO 31.3.61

PANEL OF CENSORS

BOARD OF REVIEW

Passed clean

Passed with cuts

Not passed

Total Appeals

Passed clean

Passed with cuts

Not passed

Hong Kong (Chinese Cantonese)

(Chinese Mandarin)

(Chinese-Chiu-chow)

222

205

(Chinese Fukien)

(Chinese-Shao-shing)

Chinese Amoy) (Chinese

Cantonese &

Mandarin)

India

Italy...

Japan Mexico

Philippines

Sweden

Taiwan

Taiwan - Hong Kong United Kingdom

U.S.A.

U.S.S.R.

FEATURE FILMS (16 mm)

China (Mainland)

United Kingdom U.S.A.

NEWSREELS

United Kingdom U.S.A.

SHORTS

China (Mainland)

Hong Kong ..

India...

•

***

161

150

125

111

CO N

Germany

Japan

Taiwan

United Kingdom

U.S.A.

U.S.S.R.

...

TELEVISION (Rediffusion)

Films (16 mm)

Films (35 mm)

Rediffusion Newsreels World News

In addition 215 Advertising Films were censored during period under review.

104

100

•

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८१

159 34

159

| | 7

1,994

1.988

100