A local emphasis

Press, 11 June 1977, Page 11

A local emphasis

Bj

KEN COATES

■ The policy of the new xhairtnan of the Broadcasting Corporation chairman (Mr lan Cross) — as 'expressed on Thursday ■Conference — indicates that viewers may be in for ® better deal from television.

Unless New Zealand produced its own programmes, at least to a level of 30 • per cent, the system was in part a failure, he said. “I am not here to tsombard New Zealanders with oyerseas programmes,” Mr Cross said, ■expressing his displeasure at the low proportion of local programmes being -shown by South Pacific Television. Mr Cross said journalists an-i broadcasters were often not responding to New Zealanders in the way they should, and he invited

an examination of “The Listener,” of which he had been editor. The magazine’s circulation had increased, and it had published a wide variety of articles responding to New Zealanders. including minority groups. Through a similar

policy, he hoped television would have a larger audience, which was more informed, and which respected television more. It was absolutely wrong to provide a diet of cops, robbers, and violence, he said. This attitude towards television gave manufacturers and advertisers a bad name because it could be claimed they were associated with it. On the other hand, some of the finest television produced had come from Alistair Cooke, sponsored by the Ford Motor Com pan y.

The first responsibility was to screen programmes that were creative and competently made. He was not against the portrayal of violence or sex on television. but against undue emphasis and incompetent presentation of them. When the interviewer, Keith Davis, asked Mr Cross whether charges of bias against television journalists were justified, he replied. “On occasions, yes. but on most occasions, no.” The problem was,- he went on, that many people thought journalists were biased. What they had to do was to be seen not to be biased. He advocated the use of “certain journalistic tenets” in news and current affairs programmes, so that there was no confusion in the minds of viewers as to what was inference, opinion and judgment, as distinct from fact. If commentaries were tagged, indicating what was opinion and what fact, then 70 per cent to 80 per cent of complaints would disappear. It was a timely interview, well conducted and presented. Most of all, it was encouraging for viewers. who feel they are engulfed in a sea of overseas rubbish.