Opponents of ‘Princess’ ruling seek support

Press, 17 July 1980, Page 13

Opponents of ‘Princess’ ruling seek support

PA Hamilton Opponents of the Broadcasting Corporation’s decision not to screen “Death of a Princess” are drumming up public support for itheir High Court;appeal. An Auckland University film lecturer, Mr Tom Hutchins, has said he will'definitely be a plaintiff in ! the action, " .and he ; hopes Oerthers "will join TiinL " ‘ •''

His legal adviser, a~ senior law lecturer, Dr Bill Hodge,, said he was preparing a; case, for review under the Declaratory Judgments Act, and the support of film societies and other groups would be canvassed. .

The action would proceed once it was decided who the plaintiffs would be and where it would be heard—.whether in Auckland or in Wellington, where the corporation is based. : Mr Hitchins intends To seek a review \ on . the ground that the corporat-

ion’s board members were grossly negligent in making a decision ; about a film they had unanimously refused to view.

Dr Hodge said a clear British legal precedent existed. A British appeal court had ruled that' a broadcasting authority could hot make a valid decision over’ a screening without having viewed a film in-question.

He said he xyas not out to condemn Saudi Arabia, but 'was concerned about the wider"implications ?of"the decision. for New. Zealand.

If the suppression of “Death of a Princess” was not lifted if could become, a precedent for taking many other films off the airj he said. For example, what if it were decided that a production of Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” was insulting to the Danish royal .family? Mr Hutchins said he had read the script of the controversial film and was convinced it was a very

serious, complex, and thought-provoking production. ; ■

It was ridiculous to say a film was invalid as a documentary just because it featured fictional characters. If. that criticism were made of “Death of a Princess” the same would have to be made of recent television films about Martin Luther King .and the Watergate affair. ‘ r Mr Hutchins said the contentious events portrayed in the film were not a reflection on the Koran, which, for example, did not condone the suppression of women, but on tribal Bedouin law which uninformed New Zealanders would confuse with Islam.

He said the reason the Saudi Arabian royal family was so nervous' about the film was that it revealed many things tree Muslims would regard as anti-Islamic and would .'therefore have a strong impact on the Islamic world.