Kenyatta Satire Defended

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30602, 19 November 1964, Page 17

Kenyatta Satire Defended

(N.Z. Press Assn.—Copyright) LONDON, Nov. 17. The British Broadcasting Corporation’s Director-General, Sir Hugh Carleton Greene, today described a television satire of Kenya’s Prime Minister, Mr Jomo Kenyatta as “a legitimate piece of caricature.” Sir Hugh Greene was answering criticism by the Kenya High Commission of an item in the first edition of a new 8.8. C. show “Not So

Much a Programme More a Way of Life” screened last Friday. In his letter to the High Commissioner Dr. J. N. Karanja, Sir Hugh Greene said: “Your public relations officer, Mr Meadows, had written to me to protest against an item in which the 8.8. C. television programme ‘Not So Much a Programme, More a Way of Life’ broadcast on November 13.

“I have no doubt that you are familiar with British tradition that even the most sober organs of public opinion may be expected to deal with serious political issues in a humorous way.

“The item on Mr Kenyatta, which is the subject of Mr Meadows’s complaint, seemed to me, when seen against the continuous background of serious political comment on African affairs which is included in many of our programmes, a legitimate piece of political caricature in this tradition.” Sir Hugh Greene’s letter added: "This programme is intended for the audience in Britain where the convention of political humour is well understood and no British viewer would have thought any the worse of Mr Kenyatta after this broadcast than he did before.”