Children’s TV seminar topic

Press, 30 May 1989, Page 5

Children’s TV seminar topic

The fate of children’s television after restructuring of the broadcasting industry will be the subject of a seminar run by the Children’s Television Foundation.

The foundation says there is an urgent need to discuss what should be included ip the codes of practice being drawn up by the television companies, and also to indicate to the new Broadcasting Commission how its funds should focus on the special needs of children.

The Broadcasting Act, signed into law by the Governor-General on Saturday, sets up a Broadcasting Commission responsible for allocating licence fee funds, also a Standards Authority with some limited powers. TVNZ and TV3 are writ-

ing their own voluntary codes of practice. A spokeswoman for the Children’s Television Foundation, Ms Jan Hardie, who is also a member of the Standards Authority, said that all it could do was speak strongly to politicians, broadcasters, and to the commission, suggesting how it should allocate its funds. The act contained a reference to the protection of children, “whatever that may mean, and however it is interpreted,” said Ms Hardie. The seminar, which will start at 2 p.m. on Saturday at the Christchurch Polytechnic’s Media Centre, will look at what the new act will mean for children’s television, and what can be expected from competition between channels.