Reporting Of Labour Conference

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30125, 8 May 1963, Page 14

Reporting Of Labour Conference

The New Zealand Labour Party is to be congratulated on opening its annual conference to newspaper > reporters and broadcasting and television representatives. It thus follows the example of the National Party in allowing the public a closer view of its conference proceedings. The decision to admit both newspaper and radio journalists to selected parts of the Labour conference was reached only after the New Zealand Journalists’ Association had protested against what would have been plainly unfair discrimination in favour of the broadcasting service, which the conference originally proposed to give exclusive rights of admission. While the newspapers can claim no better right of entry than the public whose eyes and ears they are on such occasions, the newspapers and their employees quite

properly objected to the preference shown the Stateowned Broadcasting Corporation. In a free country any political organisation is wise to foster as wide publicity as possible for its activities, not only to advocate its policies, but as evidence of its good faith and interest in the national welfare. The attempt by a section of the Labour Party to revive distrust of the newspapers threatened to put the Broadcasting Corporation’s representatives in the invidious position of seeming to be preferred because they would be likelier to present an ingratiating picture of the party. Everybody, both within and outside the Labour Party, should be glad that this attempt failed, and that the conference agreed to treat impartially the principal media of public information.