Former N.Z. journalist fronts satellite TV news in Britain

Press, 15 February 1989, Page 32

Former N.Z. journalist fronts satellite TV news in Britain

By

TONY VERDON

in London A decade of living in London has helped to mellow Scott Chisholm’s New Zealand accent — so much so that the former Dunedin journalist is now fronting Sky Television’s main evening news bulletins.

He is one of a large band of Antipodeans who have surprised the British television news establishment by their professional launching of Rupert Murdoch’s 24-hour satellite television news channel.

They aim to present viewers with a more aggressive and populist television news than the bulletins offered by the 8.8. C. and Independent Television News.

But Chisholm, aged 36, rejects suggestions that Sky News will be swamped by American trash. He says European taste is too sophisticated to accept it. Rupert Murdoch is said to have ploughed about S2BOM into setting up the Sky News Channel alone. It is the most costly of the six Sky Television satellite channels, four of which have begun broadcasting. The fact that relatively few people in Britain have been able to obtain a satellite dish to receive the new channels is just a temporary hiccup, according to Sky Television. Within months, it says, the dishes and other receiving equipment needed will be available in electronic goods shops.

The launch was described as the most ambitious project attempted in

British television, and few believed it could be done within the seven-month deadline set by Mr Murdoch. But while British critics have questioned the content of the programmes shown on Sky, they have all acknowledged its slick and professional presentation.

Like most of his colleagues, Chisholm has years of experience working in television news.

With Alison Holloway, who hosted Channel Four’s Olympic coverage last year, Chisholm is presenting “Sky World News Tonight” from 7 p.m. until midnight. The pair present a halfhour news bulletin on each hour, plus a■ 1 flminute news summary at 20 minutes to the hour.

“It is the toughest news reading shift I think there is,” Chisholm says.

"No-one works to this schedule — the only outfit that comes close is Cable News Network in the United States.”

Sky News has 17 television crews based in London, and seven working in the regions throughout the United Kingdom. It also receives 13 satellite “feeds” from the world’s two major international television agencies, Visnews and WTN. “Through them we have access to any American television network material, we have access to most of the national broadcasters in the world, including Television New Zealand,” he says.

Chisholm was “lured” back to television news after running his own

satellite consultancy business in London for the last two years. But he began his career in journalism as a cadet reporter on the “Otago Daily Times.”

He went to the newspaper straight from Kaikorai Valley High School. Chisholm credits the Dunedin newspaper with giving him an excellent grounding in journalism, which has stood him in good stead internationally. “If I had my time again I wouldn’t change my background in journalism,” he says. Chisholm believes that all radio and television journalists should be trained in newspapers first.

‘I don’t believe you get a good enough foundation in journalism in the electronic media — television news by its very nature is shallow, after all you have only one minute 15 seconds to tell the story.” At the age of 21 Chisholm moved to Australia.

Soon after he found himself working in radio in the A.B.C.’s federal newsroom in Sydney, and 18 months later he was doing both radio and television news work for the A.B.C. “At the end of 1977 a commercial station called to have a chat, and I moved there, to Channel 10, where I worked until 1979,” he says. Chisholm started doing foreign assignments for Channel 10, and also began doing stints as a newsreader for the channel.

At the end of 1979 he moved to London and began working as a satellite co-ordinator for Visnews. "Within three months I was in Iran covering the hostage situation,” he says.

During the three months in Iran he was arrested six times, the last time for spying. Vigilante groups roaming the streets of Teheran frequently arrested him and his crew, held them for four or five hours, and then released them without any explanation.. But after being released the final time, he knew he had to get out of the country.

With the help of colleagues and diplomats, he took refuge in various embassies before being smuggled out of the country through British Airway’s cargo section.

When he returned to Britain, he took a job with the American television news agency, Worldwide Television News, as its Eurovision Editor. But three months later he was recruited as the London correspondent for the Australian current affairs show, “The Reporters.” In this job he roamed much of the world, making 30-minute documentaries for the prestigious weekly international current affairs show.

However, the show was axed at the end of 1982 because it was proving too expensive.

Chisholm was then asked to head the Australian 10 Network’s European bureau, also bsed in London, a job he held

from 1983 until 1986. He says he thought about the Sky offer for about five weeks before deciding to accept the job. “Money obviously played a part in that decision, but it was also the challenge, that this type of operation had never been attempted before,” he says. Like other presenters on Sky, he was hired as a senior journalist, and is involved in writing stories, interviewing newsmakers, and putting together the bulletins he helps present. He freely concedes that being able to present the news is good for his ego, but quickly adds that it is tough work.

Chisholm admits to being an “aggressive” journalist, and believes the British television news organisations are going to have to adapt the competition from Sky.

“From now on politicians will have to answer the hard questions, and doors will be knocked on,” he says.

Chisholm lives in a converted Victorian artists’ studio, in Primrose Hill, near Regents Park.

Surrounded by 300-year-old oak trees, he regards the cottage as an oasis in which he can escape from the noise and bustle of London.

Chisholm’s parents still live in Fairfield, Dunedin, and he has a sister teaching in Auckland and a brother working as a stock and station agent in Oamaru.