Bastion Point

Press, 30 May 1978, Page 16

Bastion Point

Sir, —■ Having watched the display of police and Army strength on the TV news on Thursday evening, about which your own headline had the word “overkill” (May 26), we were appalled to read your editorial headed, “The Police at Bastion Point” (May <./), Surely such an historic scandal as the forceful eviction of the squatters from Bastion Point and the implications for New Zealand’s future race relations merits examination your paper in an editorial. Instead, you confine your focus on this event to a justification of the police operations and their cost in the interests of upholding Jaw and order. Such a justification of the huge-scale police operations against a minority group has strong overtones of the acceptance of “authoritarianism,” and the national “moral vacuum” mentioned by the author, James McNeish, in the frontpage article o-’ May 27 headed, “N.Z. ‘ripe for fascism’.” In this context we find your e-’itorial frightening. — Yours, etc., PHILIP CLEARWATER, MARIA CLEARWATER, BETTZ VJNK, PATRICIA MACKEY, P. W. GREEN. May 28, 1978.

Sir, —- Despite the rights and wrongs of the evictions from Bastion Point, the publicity accorded to the matter by the news media is out of all proportion to its importance, and has been given political significance in order to criticise the action of the Government, in particular vilifying statements of the Prime Minister. On the news broadcasts, the news editors have really excelled themselves by excessive repetitions of the trouble. Today’s early morning news witnessed three appearances of Mr Andersen (of S.U.P.) two of Mr Rata, venting their criticisms of Mr Muldoon, and in contrast a very brief statement by Mr Young, for the Government. What was so apparent was the failure of both Mr Andersen and Mr Rata to say just what action they thought should have been taken. The news media are guilty of using the Bastion Point issue as “cheap copy” and are the direct cause of exacerbating race relations. — Yours, etc., R. V. SHAW. May 26, 1978.