Ownership of broadcasting

Press, 28 November 1980, Page 12

Ownership of broadcasting

Sir, — In reference to your report that “Mr Muldoon was angry” about the TV reports on dental nursing and the loss of fishing rivers: Mr Muldoon is wrong in his appreciation of the ownership of the Broadcasting Corporation. It is not owned by the Government; it is owned by the public of New Zealand. — Yours, etc., • J. H. MORRIS. November 25, 1980. Sir. — Many will be grateful to John Collins for calling attention to the use recently made by the Prime Minister of the term “Government owned television.” To consider it Government owned explains his unnecessary and excessive sensitivity when it carries out its public duty as public television which it really is. But in letting slip this remark Mr Muldoon reveals much more than an attitude to television. It also shows his attitude to natural resources such as waterpower and native forests and to public services such as the Railways and Post Office. If these resources and services are considered to be Government owned when really they belong to the people of this country of the present and the future then the Government in power can do what it likes with them too easily for political purposes. — Yours etc S.E. WOODS. Diamond Harbour. November 26, 1980.