PRIVILEGE OF M.P.’s

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28766, 11 December 1958, Page 26

PRIVILEGE OF M.P.’s

Broadcasts From House Criticised

(New Zeaiana Press Association) HAMILTON, Dec. 10. The privilege enjoyed by Parliamentarians of unbridled comment while on the “floor" was discussed with some acrimony by the Hamilton Chamber of Commerce last night It was a “terrible situation,’’ said Mr H. E. Schofield, "when a man who had displeased a politician could be maligned from top to toe over the national broadcasting network. “Before the advent of Parliamentary broadcasts, when there was only a limited audience, it did not matter a great deal whai was said on the floor of the House. Today, however, the comments reach thousands of people, and if they had been uttered anywhere but in Parliament their authors would have been open to serious libel charges’’ Mr Schofield said he had listened to a Parliamentary broadcast recently, and heard a speaker "pillory” an Auckland man whom he knew personally. Ho his own knowledge, not one of the accusations was correct.