Parties provisionally allocated free TV time

Press, 23 July 1987, Page 6

Parties provisionally allocated free TV time

PA Wellington The six hours of free television time available for party political broadcasts has been provisionally allocated among the Labour Party, National Party, Democrats and Mana Motuhake, Television New Zealand said yesterday. Television’s director of programmes and production, Mr Des Monaghan, said the allocation of time was based on a formula which took into account the party’s support at the last election, its seats in the House and the average results of the last three public opinion polls. National and Labour had been allocated approximately 127 minutes each, the Democrats had been allocated 76 minutes and Mana Motuhake 30 minutes.

Mr Monaghan said final times could not be determined until nominations closed, as other parties might then qualify for a

share of the time available.

A party which had candidates in a minimum of 32 seats and had an established range of policies could qualify for a share of the time.

The two main parties would have up to 40 minutes each available for their campaign opening addresses next week, and any of that time not taken could be used as part of the party political broadcasts.

The addresses will begin with National’s opening on Sunday evening, followed by Labour on Monday and a shorter (10 minutes) Democrats’ opening on Tuesday, all to be screened at 8 p.m. The shorter party political broadcasts, from three minutes to 10 minutes per party each evening, will be screened on both networks at 7.30 p.m. during the week or 7 p.m. at week-ends. National, Labour and Democrats would each

have a closing address of 20 minutes to be screened on TVI on the final Friday of the campaign at 8 p.m., Mr Monaghan said. TVNZ has also rejected criticism of unfairness by the New Zealand Party which earlier yesterday said it would complain to the Broadcasting Tribunal and called on its candidates to boycott television news.

The acting controller of news and current affairs, Mr Rick Carlyon, said the party’s conference last week-end was reported fairly and objectively. He said coverage reflected the number of candidates to be fielded this election, the lack of. any published manifesto or policy and the fact that 26 party members were present.

Later, TVNZ said that the party had been invited to join Labour, National and the Democrat parties in the four question time programmes.