Mr Birch latest Minister to join newspaper ban

Press, 30 September 1983, Page 3

Mr Birch latest Minister to join newspaper ban

PA Wellington The Prime Minister, Mr Muldoon, and his Cabinet Ministers seem to have different views on how thoroughly they should boycott reporters of the Wellington morning newspaper, “The Dominion.” The Minister of Energy, Mr Birch, became the fourth Minister to extend the ban to include interviews, but Mr Muldoon said in Washington he would continue to talk to “Dominion” reporters and would not ban them from press conferences.

Mr Birch joined the Minister of Housing, Mr Friedlander, the Minister of Education, Mr Wellington, and the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr Cooper, who have all declined to be interviewed by “Dominion” staff. The ban originally applied only to written documents. Mr Cooper’s ban relates to the newspaper’s reporting that Government officials would still go to Moscow for trade talks in spite of the shooting-down of the Korean aircraft.

Mr Birch said of “Dominion” reporters, “If you have justification for not sending them press statements it is not logical

to have interviews with them.

“I do not see any sense to having a ‘Dominion’ reporter in my office and at the same time say I will not give him press statements.” Mr Birch said that Mr Muldoon was referring to his post-Cabinet and postcaucus press conferences held in the Beehive theatrette. “I can understand the Prime Minister’s point of view there because he is talking in a more general sense to New Zealand.”

The Cabinet imposed the ban two weeks ago after “The Dominion” published a leaked document about the tripartite wage talks.

Mr Muldoon also said “Dominiion” circulation was falling, but this was disputed last evening by Mr W. J. Kelso, general manager of Wellington Newspapers, Ltd. “Mr Muldoon is totally wrong about ‘The Dominion’ circulation figures,” he said. “Circulation figures are published every year by the Audit Bureau of Circulation, an independent organisation, and they are a matter of record.

“The average net circulation of ‘The Dominion’ for

the year ended September 30, 1981, was 62,862. For the year ended September 30, 1982, it was 65,055. “The figures for the current year are now being audited and they will positively show a further increase in ‘The Dominion’s’ circulation,” said Mr Kelso.

The topic arose in Washington after Mr Muldoon had addressed the National Press Club. During a question session, Mr Muldoon was asked, “In a nation with a free press does the Government have the right to withhold information from one publication because it disagrees with something that publication has printed?” Mr Muldoon replied, “It not only has the right — it has done it.” He said that he did not want to bore his American audience, but said, “We have in our capital city a morning newspaper called ‘The Dominion,’ and it is not a very good newspaper.” Wellington was one of the few cities in the world where the evening newspaper sold far more copies than the morning newspaper, he said.

Mr Muldoon then explained what the tripartite

wage talks were and said ‘The Dominion’ had published a leaked account from them.

He stopped written material from going to “The Dominion” “but, of course, all the rest of the New Zealand press say, ‘Well, we’ll give it to them, you know, you give it to us, we’ll give it to them, because we must stick together as journalists’ and so on.” Mr Muldoon said “The Dominion” “got a tremendous amount out of this — it had pages and pages of all this anti-democratic stuff and so on, and lots of indignant letters to the editor from my political opponents.” Any thought of lifting the ban on supplying information to “The Dominion” would have to be considered by the Cabinet after he got back, Mr Muldoon said. “It is certainly not going to be dealt with from here,” he said.

“I am sure ‘The Dominion’ is enjoying it immensely, it fills pages and pages with this stuff, and for ‘The Dominion’ that is something. I think it is the first story it has ever treated in full,” said Mr Muldoon.