Labour move fails to unveil ‘Princess’ file

Press, 11 August 1980, Page 15

Labour move fails to unveil ‘Princess’ file

A Labour Party attempt to let the public have, a look at a crucial Broadcasting Corporation report on the controversial film, “Death of a Princess,” has (ailed. Labour’s spokesman on broadcasting, Mr J. J. Terris (Western Hutt), has suggested during question time iii Parliament that the report of the corporation’s programme standards department should be released.

The Minister of Broadcasting (Mr Templeton) replied that the report should not be released because it would constitute political interference for politicians to call for its release.

Mr Terris said the report’s release would be in the public interest Mr Templeton said the corporation was an independent statutory body responsible for its own programme decisions.

“It is not my intention to take a step which could be interpreted as political interference,” Mr Templeton said.

When the chairman of the corporation, Mr lan Cross, announced that the corporation’s board, which did not see the film, had voted unanimously not to screen the film, he quoted the programme standards section’s reports as having been greatly influential in the decision. The head of that sec-

tion, Mr Alan Paterson, had been asked by Mr Cross to view the film, and assess it in the way he would normally judge controversial material from overseas; he was also asked to examine whether allegations that the film dangerously mixed fact and conjecture, and to look into allegations that it was an insult to Islam.

Mr Cross has already declined to release the report. He says it is confidential. Since a working definition of a confidential report is a report which someone does not want the public to see, there is no arguing with that — JOHN COLLINS.