‘Political reasons for broadcasting changes’

Press, 22 July 1976, Page 6

‘Political reasons for broadcasting changes’

The reasons for proposed changes in the television news services were not financial but political, said the former Minister of Broadcastling and Labour member of [Parliament for Manukau, Mr [R. (). Douglas, last evening. : Mr Douglas was addressing la group of Labour Party supjporters at the University of Canterbury about the Government’s decision to restructure broadcasting and amalgamate the two news services. The Government wished to limit, if not control, news outlets, he said. “The first sign of a government attempting to control democratic institutions is for that government to move in on the news media with broadcasting as its first target,” said Mr Douglas. “The broadcasting decision, announced as it was from South Korea, strikes at the very freedom necessary if broadcasting in New Zealand is to

[remain alive and exciting and I not return to the static, (stodgy affair it was under the ■[N.Z 8.C.” ! The importance of news [could not be overemphasised, [Mr Douglas said. [ “The three interpretations by the television and radio [corporations of events in New (Zealand have tended to stimulate and correct one another [and, hopefully, the press as well,” he said. “It suits Mr Muldoon to have only one interpretation of the news. The attitude taken by the Government is somewhat different, from the [attitude it adopted in Opposition.” Mr Douglas said that the cost to the public oi having two television news services (would be about 55c per head [a year. “The Minister of Broadcasting (Mr Templeton) has said that the cost of the news services is S6M,” he said. “Mr D. Eckhoff, TVl’s head of news and current, affairs, accuses the Government of justifying its case with figures it knew were wrong.” ’ Mr Douglas quoted Mr Eckhoff as saying: “We had officials from the Treasury and Mr Muldoon’s office in before the Minister made his speech to Christchurch staff, and these guys were saying news cost SSM, We laughed at that, and showed by the accounts that the figure was much under SSM, yet still the Minister uses this erroneous SSM. Now he has bumped it up to S6M, and his staff figure includes names of people who have left and rural and sports commentators who are not rated as journalists.” Mr Douglas said that the introduction of any form of political control would destroy the present “swell of creativity” within the corporations and would be a great step backwards for broadcasting in New Zealand. “It is the independence associated with the new structuring that has allowed broad- [ casting to really ‘come alive’ [in New Zealand,” he said. Those opposed to the present broadcasting structure (had used the supposed finjancial position of the separ-| [ate corporations as a whip-1 [ping boy. A comment by the! [new Director-General of 1

Broadcasting (Mr Ron Jarden) that the present broadcasting system would lose S9M a year if present trends were left to continue was little short of mischievous, wrong, and absolutely irresponsible, said Mr Douglas. The single channel under the N.Z.B.C. had lost $9.2M in the 1974-75 year, while TVl’s loss the next year had been SSM, said Mr Douglas. The budgeted costs of TVI compared with actual costs of the N.Z.B.C. channel had been reduced by about SSM while transmission hours and local content had been expanded.