Fight for TV2 ‘will go on’

Press, 21 November 1979, Page 6

Fight for TV2 ‘will go on’

PA New Plymouth The leader of a group of Taranaki people who will not pay their full television licence fee because they can receive only one channel on their sets was fined $2O in the Magistrate’s Court at Hawera yesterday. Barrie Morgan, aged 42, a dairy engineer, of Opunake, was supported at the court by about 50 other protesters who arrived in two buses. Outside the courthouse they waved placards and banners and shouted: “We want justice. We want TV2.” Morgan said he was the first to be prosecuted for failing to pay his full licence fee. “Early yesterday morning there were up to 30 others who were going

to do the same. Now there are probably hundreds,'’ he said. He asserted that 300 people on the Opunake coast received only "about $lO worth'’ from their licence fee. "That is $30,000 the Broadcasting Council is getting away with. We are getting ripped off,” he said. Mr J. W. Dalmer, S.M., said there was no doubt Morgan’s protest had been noted in the appropriate quarters. Morgan, who pleaded not guilty to the charge, said later he would pay the fine, and costs. But he said he would continue to refuse to pay his full licence fee, as would others on the coast. "The fight is only just beginning," he said.