POLITICS ON THE AIR

Taranaki Daily News, 3 September 1935, Page 9

POLITICS ON THE AIR

PROPOSALS BY MINISTER TENTATIVE SCHEME ASKED FOR. WILL ALL CANDIDATES SPEAK? LISTENERS’ WISHES PARAMOUNT. By Telegraph—Press Association. Wellington, Last Night. Although there are many difficulties in arranging a suitable system for the broadcast of campaign speeches it is the intention of the Government to grant facilities for representatives of political parties to speak over the air before the general election. The Postmaster-Gen-eral, the Hon. A. Hamilton, has asked the Broadcasting Board to consider the matter and to prepare a tentative scheme. Until such a scheme is drawn up and considered by the Government he can give little indication of what arrangements will be made. Mr. Hamilton believes that broadcasting must play a progressively important part in the public life of the Dominion and that it would not be right to keep politics off the air during a general election campaign. He said to-day that radio had been used extensively for elections in Great Britain and in Australia and that New Zealand would be justified in using her national system for the convenience and information of electors. Mr. Hamilton mentioned some of the difficulties in the way of working out a broadcasting scheme which would be fair to all parties and best suited to the requirements and desires of listeners. It might be necessary to confine the speakers to the leaders of the parties—to the Prime Minister, the Minister of Finance and to the Leader of the Opposition—but even then the demands of outside parties such as the Democrats would require to be met.

The Broadcasting Board and the Government might think it advisable to allow every candidate an opportunity to speak over the air but in that event it would perhaps be desirable to restrict the length of speeches to 10 minutes or a quarter of an hour with a longer time for the leaders. Then the matter of stations would have to be considered. Would each candidate be allowed to speak from a central station or would he be restricted to the station nearest to his district? Would the sitting candidate have the right to choose his time to speak, first, second or last? Would Ministers and party leaders be entitled to a longer time or to a wider choice of stations?

These and many other questions would require careful consideration before the rules were laid down. It must be remembered that the interests of listeners were paramount in such,a case and that the programmes must not be cluttered up with political propaganda for the whole course of the campaign.

Mr. Hamilton thought it would be advisable to prevent candidates from speaking during the last week of the campaign so that no unanswered charges or criticism could be made. The Minister did not think that any form of censorship would be imposed beyond the ordinary regulations necessary in broadcasting.