Offer to reinstate TV1 editor after election rejected

Press, 22 February 1978, Page 17

Offer to reinstate TV1 editor after election rejected

An offer by the chairman of the Boardcasting Corporation (Mr lan Cross) to reinstate Mr John Knowles as Christchurch editor of TVI after the general election has been rejected by the Public Service Association. Mr J. E. Cornhill, secretary of the Christchurch P.SA. section, said that

By

KEN COATES

after local members had been consulted, he told negotiators in Wellington not to accept Mr Cross' offer. “We will continue to demand reinstatement but will be prepared to agree that Mr Knowles be withdrawn from the political news arena 30 days prior to the general election and seven days after it,” he added. This proviso would only be in Fine with rights pro-

vided by the Broadcasting Act and the employees’ manual if in fact Mr Knowles was a bona fide political condidate, Mr Cornhill said. An important principle was involved. While the Broadcasting Corporation argued that Mr Knowles

was in a sensitive area it had to remember all civil servants were called on to administer Government policy. What would happen, for example, with a man who worked in the Social Welfare Department who sought election to Parliament?

Would it be considered that he would not administer fairly and impartially Government policy when it so happened that it was not agreed to by the political party to which the civil servant belonged? “Such a person is actually far more vulnerable because in broadcasting, news staff are not actually operating policy,” Mr Cornhill said. “Other civil servants could, if this kind of attitude become general, be extremely vulnerable. The whole thing has frightening implications.”