TV Request For Execution Delay

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31781, 11 September 1968, Page 17

TV Request For Execution Delay

(N Z.P.A.-Reuter —Copyright) LONDON, September 10. A British Broadcasting Corporation officer has disclosed that a 8.8. C. camera team asked for the execution of a Nigerian Army officer to be delayed while they repaired their television equipment.

The filming of the shooting! of a Federal Army officer! found guilty of murdering an; unarmed Biafran prisoner aroused disgust and indignation in Britain. In a letter to “The Times” today. Mr T. Winter, chief assistant to the editor of the 8.8.C.’s news and current affairs said that power to the camera failed and it took between 15 and 30 seconds to restore it. “In this difficult situation, the call to hold up the execution was more the result of tensed nerves and distress than a considered request,” Mr Winter wrote. RIGHT DEFENDED

The Postmaster-General (Mr John Stonehouse) opened the International Broadcasting Convention in London today with a stout defence of the right to show on television what is happening even when the events are shocking. Mr Stonehouse chided those who criticised British television’s handling of thel Chicago convention riots, the] Czechoslovak crisis and the Nigerian civil war. He said he could see nothing reprehensible in the way these events were covered, and he added that it was up to the individual televiewer to be his own censor. “We cannot censor events for the viewing of the many to protect the sensibilities of the very few,” Mr Stonehouse declared.

More than 700 delegates to the five-day convention include representatives from Italy, Japan, West Germany, Switzerland and the United States.