Children neglected, says Peter Vere-Jones

Press, 24 October 1984, Page 14

Children neglected, says Peter Vere-Jones

PA . Auckland The actor-writer,- Peter Vere-Jones, has called for a new broadcasting department devoted entirely to children’s programmes. “For too long children — that vital third of our population — have been neglected,” he says. Vere-Jones has just returned from Europe where he has been studying children’s broadcasting in Britain, Sweden, Denmark and Germany under a Bill Toft

“I believe a new department for children is necessary to bring together the fragmented work already being done here,” he told the newsletter for Monitor, a TV and radio watchdog organisation on programme standards particularly for children. “It is time the New Zealand people, the Government and the Radio Corporation acknowledged the urgent need for a vigorous new department. In a six-point plan, Vere-

Jones calls for the department to be set up in Well- ■ ington and to supply at least ' seven hours of children’s I programmes each week. 1 The actor-writer has been the author of the Sunday 1 radio serial for children, “Space Station Z,” for the last four years. Besides countless radio plays, his acting credits in- > elude the television series, “Children of Fire Mountain,” “Pukemanu” and “Mortimer’s .Patch.”