TELEVISION IN BRITAIN

Press, Volume LXXXI, Issue 24624, 21 July 1945, Page 7

TELEVISION IN BRITAIN

POST-WAR PLANS OF 8.8.C. CRITICISM OF RADIO MONOPOLY (N.Z. Press Association— Copyright) LONDON, July 19. The Director-General of the British Broadcasting Corporation (Mr W. J. Haley) told correspondents that television would be introduced in Britain as soon as the Government gave the word. It would take nine months to prepare for actu&l transmissions, he said, but in spite of all the research done during the war, the range of television reception had been increased only from 40 to 45 miles. He said that new programmes would be introduced in the home service, and there was no reason why the 8.8.C. programme should not be as good as any in the world. Experience has proved that the 8.8.C. has not been, is not, and cannot be impartial on controversial issues, says Mr Ernest Thurtle, in his book, “Time’s Winged Chariot.” Mr Thurtle, who. during the Coalition Government, was Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Information, from which the 8.8.C. accepted direction in war matters, thinks that the 8.8.C.'s monopoly should end. He says that its much vaunted objectiveness is greatly exaggerated, and that private interests and prejudices intrude into the programmes in a number of directions, although in theory the 8.8.C. gives equal prominence to all views. It thus provides the opportunity for any crypto-proselytiser on the staff to make a great show of giving all sides of a question, yet contriving to weigh the scales in accordance with his own inclinations. * Mr Thurtle contends that on a newspaper anyone attempting to give a “slant” in articles and news at variance with editorial policy would speedily be detected, whereas a person doing a similar thing in the 8.8.C. could reasonably count on a long, successful run. Mr Thurtle, turning to the newspapers, alleged that the concentration of the enormous power of the press in a few hands had evil potentialities. He saw for himself, while at the Ministry of Information, the power of the press to make or break particular Min-> isters. He believed, however, that State-controlled newspapers would not remedy the situation.