Pirate Broadcasts Urge Bomb Ban

Press, Volume C, Issue 29690, 7 December 1961, Page 17

Pirate Broadcasts Urge Bomb Ban

(Special Correspondent N.Z.P.A.)

, LONDON, December 5 Large-scale “pirate” broadcasting operations have been organised this week by supporters of the committee of IM to send out messages presenting “the voice of nuelear disarmament” over the 8.8. C. and LT.V. channels. The broadcasts, which include interviews with nuclear disarmament supporters. including Earl Russell and Vanessa Redgrave, are being made every night after the normal television closedown. They are sound broadcasts, but they can be heard only on television channels in certain areas. The broadcasts last about five minutes each. Their main purpose is to give de-

tails of forthcoming antinuclear demonstrations No attempt is being made at present to break into official broadcasting time, but the movement is conducting experiments to see if it will be possible to superimpose a nuclear disarmament symbol over the television picture. The movement has six transmitters in operation, the biggest of which is in London It has a range of fifteen miles. Twenty persons man the transmitters in their spare time. They all risk fines of £lOO or three months' imprisonment for contravening the law. The broadcasts are made in great secrecy and the places of transmission are changed frequently to avoid detection. Some transmitters are in mobile vans, others in houses.