Broadcasters: ‘hands off’

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33985, 28 October 1975, Page 18

Broadcasters: ‘hands off’

(New Zealand Press Association

WELLINGTON, October 27.

Television producers today warned iliticians to leave the broadcasting ovstem alone.

The president of the Television Producers and Directors Association (Mr Tony Rimmer) said today that the new broadcasting system should be allowed a fair trial, and any attempt to try another reorganisation would be counterproductive.

Mr Rimmer said his association appealed to ■political parties to let the status quo in television continue as they developed their ’election policies.

I It was time for broad[casters to be left alone to get on with the job of producing better programmes. “A continual re[organisation by politicians (will not, in the final analysis, be helpful in our hunt for better programmes,” he said. ' Mr Rimmer said his organisation believed some politicans have the idea that there was a need for more changes in the broadcasting system. I Television production staff ’ had grabbed the initiative and [were “making a go” of the ' new two-channel system. Mr Rimmer said. In the short time there had been two television channels, competition had certainly arrived and programme production had seen tremendous advances in both quality and quantity. “A wave of new vigour and enthusiasm has swept through the medium,” he said. In less than a year there had been a doubling in output of local production on what the N.Z.B.C. produced, despite the disruptive effects of the transition.

“The number of women involved in programme production has also increased considerably in International Women’s Year,” he said.