"Bear Hall-marks Of Dictatorship"

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31195, 20 October 1966, Page 18

"Bear Hall-marks Of Dictatorship "

An N.Z.B.C. programme had been held up, advertisements had been suppressed, and police and security agents had appeared—all as a result of the protest against the Vietnam war, said Dr. J. Stott, at the Vietnam protest meeting held in Christchurch last evening.

All this, said Dr Stott, who is secretary of the Christchurch Joint Council on Vietnam, was a measure of the fear that “our own views will, to some extent anyway, eventually prevail.” But the actions bore the hall-marks of dictatorship, he said. Mr F. A. Betts said the N.Z.B.C. had given adequate coverage of the demonstration in the grounds of Christchurch Cathedral. The corporation was feeling very sensative.

“It was delighted to tell how the other mass media, 'The Press,’ excluded our advertisement” he added. “And it actually allowed you to read what was on the banner.”

At one stage of the meeting, the chairman (Mr L. F.

J. Ross) said that without reporters who wrote about what was actually going on in Vietnam the world would not know atrocities were happening. “Any careful reader of ‘The Press’ can get quite a lot of truth by reading between the lines as to what’s going on,” he added.

There was no excuse for the terrible atrocities, he said, producing pictures from “Life” magazine.