Broadcasting bill

Press, 9 December 1976, Page 20

Broadcasting bill

Sir, — Professor Breward’s comment that civil servants thrive on anonymity, deferring decisions, inter-office memos and a regular ladder system of promotion should be seriously considered. The bureaucrats initiative, creativity and decisiveness are submerged by his instinct to survive and his greed for power. Only by fawning to his masters can he achieve these. The creativity and initiative displayed by broadcasters of the calibre of Simon Walker will be lost if the bureaucrats are allowed control. Simon Walker recently exposed the hypocrisy that is Parliament and earned a Parliamentary “rap” to which he cheerily apologised; nevertheless the greater public interest was served by his initiative. Freedom of speech is under attack on many fronts at the present time. Broadcasting is the last place where we need .compliant bureaucrats to serve us a diet of pap in an effort to appease their greed by pleasing a committee of faceless government appointees. — Yours, etc., D. W. O. JONES. December 7, 1976.