MORE ABUSE OF THE AIR

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 81, 3 October 1938, Page 8

MORE ABUSE OF THE AIR

When in August last* the Prime Minister announced that the services of "his friend" Mr. Scrimgeour as Controller of Commercial Broadcasting were to be retained, he was asked if there were to be any restrictions regarding the controller's broadcast talks. Mr. Savage's reply was brief and to the point. "There are no conditions at.all," he said. "He just carries on." Safe in the knowledge that no obstacles would be placed in his way, Mr. Scrimgeour "carried on" in the Auckland Town Hall last evening, and, by the use of the broadcasting stations which the Government has seen fit to place in his full and unfettered control, his thinlyveiled political propaganda was heard in all parts of New Zealand. As a private individual, Mr. Scrimgeour may be conceded the right to hold political opinions and to express them, but as a civil servant he has no right to make use of the facilities which he is expected to control in the public interest in order to give those views the widest possible circulation. • If his action is to be accepted as legitimate, and apparently the Government is content to allow him to "carry on," what is there to stop the Director-General of the Post and Telegraph Department addressing a public meeting on political questions and having his remarks telegraphed to every part of the Dominion? Similarly, what is there to stop the Secretary to the Treasury instructing his staff to prepare material for him to use for political purposes? The principle is just the same/ If the complacency with which the Government allows the Controller of Commercial Broadcasting to abuse his privileged position is to apply to other civil servants, an intolerable position will quickly be reached and the high principles on which the Civil Service has been founded will go by the board. As the public have good reason for knowing, last night was not the first occasion on which the Controller of Commercial Broadcasting has used the stations at his command for the dissemination of political propaganda. He has done it repeatedly, on some occasions more blatantly than on others. Moreover, he has not only defied public opinion, but he has also openly defied prominent members of the Government which gave him his present appointment. Not long, after he took over his position he saw fit to make a bitter attack on the Press of New Zealand, and on that occasion he was taken to task by the Minister of Education (Mr. Fraser), who at that time was Acting Prime Minister. The statement made by Mr. Scrimgeour in regard to a section of the Press, the Minister said, was made without - the consent, knowledge, or approval of the Government. The propriety of a State radio broadcasting station being used by a public servant for controversial purposes has received the attention of the Government. But whatever attention the Government gave to the matter was not sufficient, to deter Mr. Scrimgeour. Before very long he repeated (and aggravated) the offence in that now famous broadcast of Sunday, August 7. The controller on that occasion attacked in the strongest terms persons inside and outside of Parliament who had criticised his actions. The Acting Minister of Broadcasting (Mr. Jones) on that occasion told Parliament : If we had seen the script of this particular address it would not have gone over the air. Here was another plainly-worded rebuke for Mr. Scrimgeour, but like that given by Mr. Fraser it has been ignored. Last night the controller took full advantage of Mr. Savage's complacent acceptance of his right "to. carry on," and indulged, over the air, in propaganda plainly designed to assist the present Govern-! ment back to office. Whatever views the Government may hold about Mr. Scrimgeour's advocacy of its cause, it cannot escape a full measure of responsibility for allowing a civil servant to so blatantly abuse the privileges which he holds not on behalf of a political party, but on behalf of the people of New Zealand as a whole. The one-sided methods of the Government are suggestive of the methods of "freedom of speech" urfder dictatorship. Four colonels a| little while ago criticised Government and were disciplined promptly; the Controller of Commercial Broadcasting supports Government policy, is twice rebuked, and still has a free hand. Professor Algie, who resigned his professorship before dealing with politics, has no broadcast and much interruption. Mr. Scrimgeour, who still holds his Government position, uses the radio facilities to help the Government.

With this and the wholly unequal allotment of election broadcasts, strongly favouring Labour and Labour-voting Independents, can anyone longer believe that equal democratic privileges are not endangered?