Documentary was filmed secretly

Press, 3 December 1987, Page 15

Documentary was filmed secretly

French nuclear testing in the Pacific is an issue that will remain alive as long as the testing continues. Now a British television company, T.V.S., in association with Television New Zealand, has produced a documentary on French Polynesians who claim the tests are killing them. .

“Tahiti Witness” screens at 9 on One tonight. It researches the claims by many inhabitants of the islands around Mururoa Atoll that an increase in the incidence of cancer among them is directly attributable to radioactive contamination from the tests. Paul , France, who handled the New Zealand involvement in the documentary, explained the procedure: “T.V.S. undertook research and filming in France for the project and then contacted us for help in the Pacific part. We pooled all our knowledge of the subject, and then supplied a contract camera crew for the trip to Tahiti. “We knew that up until 1981, Tahitians suffering from cancer were flown to New Zealand for treatment. However, when local journalists began to take an interest in the

matter, the French began sending the patients to Paris.” The camera crew consisted of Richard Williams and Barbara Free of Hawke’s Bay. “We found that we were going to have to film covertly,” say Williams, “and so we used tourist-style camera-equipment, the same way that the T.V.S. crew had filmed in France.” T.V.S. producer and frontman Peter Williams (not to be confused with the TVNZ sports announcer) was aware that news crews have experienced difficulty in the past filming in French Polynesia. The group took a lot of precautions while travelling, like frequent changes of hotels, and swapping rental cars as they had some suspicion that they were being watched.

At the end of the filming T.V.S. director Vivien Morgan was stopped at the airport and subjected to a complete search of her baggage and possessions, well beyond the normal airport search procedures. Fortunately, notes Richard Williams, Vivien Morgan had taken the step of sending all of her research notes out by mail beforehand.