News cover barrier worries journalist

Press, 10 November 1980, Page 3

News cover barrier worries journalist

PA Auckland I The author of a book 'about the Mount Erebus i crash says he is surprised that the authorities at the crash site have not been asked to account publicly for their attitude towards the news media. Three journalists, repre-. senting the New Zealand Press Association, radio,- and television, were flown to. McMurdo to report on th£ crash. '■* * •* They spent two weeks, at Scott Base and ..were prevented, mainly by the police, from visiting the crash site, said the author, Mr Ken Hickson. Even a Government request from Wellington failed to give them access to the site. 1 Yet a few days after they returned to New Zealand a i television cameraman was flown to the Antarctic and taken immediately to the site. Mr Hickson said that in researching his book he had failed to get an adequate, explanation for the ban from any of the authorities involved. “Yes it was indicated to me that under similar circumstances, the same barrier

i‘would apply again,” he said. c Among the people he had s spoken to was Inspector R. 1 S. Mitchell, the officer in ; charge of the police team on i the ice. r Mr Hickson said that one i of the bad things about the news media party’s stay was that there was a real threat lof physical force hanging i over the three journalists’ i heads if they “looked like 1 stepping out of line,” and this had been demonstrated t at least once when filming '■ was under way at the , McMurdo Base. , The inexplicable thing i about the police approach, Mr Hickson said, was that t the techniques of disaster i management had been ) recently up-dated by studies in overseas countries, in* ; eluding America. i However, the attitude of > other enlightened Western 1 countries, which recognised j the value of the press and its ability to be self-censor-i ing, Mr Hickson said, Was i

not reflected by the New Zealand police, whose attitude was authoritarian and basically unhealthy in a democracy. Mr Hickson said ,he was told by one of the authorities involved- that the man had no intention of having his wife and children watching television in: which- the’ hiore gruesome aspects of the crash were depicted. Mr Hickson,, himself a television journalist,, said he had no doubt 'that the television film would have been closely, edited before screening. Mr Hickson’s book, “Flight 901 to Erebus” was published a week ago. The book details some of the difficulties faced by the three journalists. Mr Hickson said that there was an urgent need for the media, police, and other authorities to get together to work out the type of approach which should be taken on disaster reporting.