Poster pasting draws fire

Press, 29 March 1985, Page 5

Poster pasting draws fire

A Christchurch City councillor believes that the anti-

apartheid movement, Hart, should be prosecuted after a spokesman admitted illegally pasting posters in the city. Cr Helen Garrett wants legal action taken against Hart to discourage other groups and individuals from illegally pasting posters. “At last we have a culprit who has admitted doing this. I want some action taken,” Cr Garrett said. Mr Joe Davies, of the Christchurch branch of Hart, admitted in a letter to “The Press” printed yesterday that “anti-tour posters ‘plastered’ around the city are the responsibility of Hart, the Aotearoa AntiApartheid Movement.” The council had long waged a campaign against posters being stuck on M.E.D. boxes, walls, trafficsignal control boxes and other areas, where it was illegal to paste them, said ,Cr Garrett. The council had

been hindered in taking action in the past because it had not known who was responsible. Any groups approached had denied putting up posters. Mr Davies’ admission in the newspaper columns at last gave some proof that the council could act upon, she said. Mr Davies’ letter was a response to accusations that people from the Christchurch Unemployed Rights Centre, which shares premises with Hart, had put up the posters. The council’s director of environmental health, Mr David Batten, said he doubted the council could take action, as a general admission of responsibility by Mr Davies was not enough to prove that he had pasted up each poster. Instead, he expected the council would write to Hart to explain that it was illegal to paste up posters without council authorisation.