PARLIAMENTARY BROADCASTS

Press, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23079, 23 July 1940, Page 8

PARLIAMENTARY BROADCASTS

MEMBERS WARNED OF A DANGER

PRIVATE CONVERSATIONS MAY BE HEARD

[From Our Parliamentary Reporter.] WELLINGTON, July 22.

The danger of private conversations in the House of Representatives of a nature likely to be contrary to the public interest filtering over the air has been impressed on members by notices issued by the Speaker (the’ Hon. W. E. Barnard). The attention of members has been drawn by Mr Speaker to extracts from a letter received by him from a listener who reports that while Mr W. J. Broadfoot, the Opposition member for Waitomo, was speaking between 4 p.m. and 4.30 p.m. on July 12, he heard two statements above the hum of conversation Which were not meant for the public ear. One voice concluded by remarking: “It isn’t to be broadcast yet.” The correspondent wrote that, after listening to a recent British Broadcasting Corporation broadcast by Mr Duff Cooper, and an address by the Prime Minister of New Zealand, warning the people against false rumours, he felt that attention should be drawn to his experience of listening in. "Apart altogether frqjn the inconvenience of those listening in, members will appreciate the risk of private conversations, which may be contrary to the public interest, filtering through ‘over the air’,” says the notice issued by Mr Speaker.