Colony of North Borneo annual report.

  • British North Borneo
Date:
[1959]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Colony of North Borneo annual report. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    192/274 page 158
    Press Section The Press Section continued to supply official news and back¬ ground information to the local press and to the press in Brunei and Sarawak. A total of 2,720 press releases publicising Govern¬ ment activities and policies, including other items of local interest, were issued by the section during the year. News releases received from the London Press Service dealing with the United Kingdom and Commonwealth Affairs, as well as releases received from the United Kingdom High Commissioner’s office in Singapore and the Australian Commissioner in Singapore were also circulated to the local press. The press section in addition acted as a newsroom for Radio Sabah and in order to establish an up-to-date local news services full use was made of outstation correspondents who reported local items. News Bulletins were broadcast five days a week in English, Chinese, Malay and Kadazan and copies of the news items were passed to the local press. In view of wide interest in these radio news broadcasts plans were formulated for the appointment of a full-time news editor in order to enable daily news bulletins to be broadcast and more comprehensive coverage to be given to all aspects of local news. The Publications Section of the Department continued to progress. “Anak Sabah” a monthly newspaper in English designed to cater for the specialised needs of adolescents, particularly schoolchildren, entered its fourth year of publication. The paper aims at helping young people to improve their English, to take an interest in the country and in other people around them, and to express themselves in writing. The demand for and interest in the paper remained as keen as ever, and the audited circulation figures still showed that an average of some 2,000 copies per issue are sold. The Publications Section also published ‘Radio Sabah Calling”, a magazine which includes the programme details of Radio Sabah in English, Chinese, Malay and Dusun (Kadazan) as well as notes, features articles, illustrations and correspondence. It completed its third year of publication in 1959 and in spite of distribution difficulties and delays in printing which resulted in a decrease in circulation, particularly on the East Coast, the audited sales figures continued to show a circula¬ tion of 2,500 copies per issue for the first six months of the year. There have been no new developments in the Colony’s local press. “The North Borneo News and Sabah Times” continued to be the only English daily newspaper aand included news and correspondence in Romanised Malay and Dusun. “The Borneo Bulletin”, a weekly newspaper in English published in Brunei, also circulated in the Colony.
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