‘Police and news media agreement needed’

Press, 3 August 1985, Page 3

‘Police and news media agreement needed’

PA Wellington The Police Department had no intention of seeking a system of news media censorship along the lines of British D-notices, said the Commissioner of Police, Mr Ken Thompson, yesterday. He was commenting on a telf 't

-devision news report which suggested a news blackout might be sought after problems struck by the police in the Rainbow Warrior murder inquiry. The Auckland police, according to the report, are upset that publication of information obtained by the news media has made their search for the terrorists more difficult. A Frenchwoman said to have infiltrated the Greenpeace organisation in Auckland before the bombs sank the ship had fled Israel shortly before she could be questioned by police there... and immediately after a news item was published in Auckland, the report asserted. Mr Thompson said yesterday that he did not consider a D-notice system should be imposed in New Zealand because, for one thing, he did not think it was effective.

He said the inquiry had shown there was a need for some form of agreement between the police and the news media so that police investigations were not made more difficult.

He said some problems had arisen in the Rainbow Warrior murder and criminal damage investigations because of the reluctance of editors to restrict publication of details. “I don’t see any form of notice overcoming this sort of problem.” Mr Thompson said he thought a totally new concept of journalism had been seen in the Rainbow Warrior case in that reporters had interviewed people after they had been interviewed by the police. The results of the interviews had then been published without any knowledge of the effect they had on the over-all investigation. In the United Kingdom, a D-notice committee, including representatives of the Government and the news media, may issue a D-notice requesting the non-publica-tion of facts or items in matters concerning national security.

Mr Thompson said, “I see

this as something that we have to sit down and talk about because it could lead to tragedy in certain circumstances.

“It is hard enough in the 1980 s to conduct a criminal investigation without people making statements to us fearful of the fact that that information will become public knowledge immediately thereafter. “ You might say people do not have to talk to the press, but not everybody knows their rights or, in fact, has the courage to stand up to the media.”

Some sort of balance was needed in the situation which met the needs of the police as investigators and the news media which had a job to keep the public informed, Mr Thompson said. Active journalistic inquiries had been made, in this case in New Caledonia and the results had been published. The police could not restrict news media right to do so “but we need to get a fair measure of understanding of our respective responsibilities in terms of the effect on New Zealand society,” he said.