PARLIAMENT AND POLITICS ON THE AIR.

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLIII, Issue 20851, 6 October 1937, Page 6

PARLIAMENT AND POLITICS ON THE AIR.

Although only seven speech-making contributions were made in the House of Representatives last week on the Financial Statement presented by the Minister of Finance last Tuesday, it can be said that the Budget debate has been well launched. The discussion has been interesting this year by reason of the broadcasting facilities provided under the Government’s plans to enable the people of New Zealand to hear the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth straight from the lips of chosen speakers on both sides. It is difficult, at the moment, to measure the precise reaction of the people to the broadcast of Parliamentary debates, but we rather fancy the discerning listener who has been accustomed to peruse the printed summaries of Parliamentary speeches with their well-rounded periods and complete absence of grammatical errors, will begin to appreciate the mercifulness of the newspapers in reporting the remarks of the average Parliamentarian. But to-day the listener is able to enjoy the “privilege” of hearing the verbal expressions used by speakers without the polish that they receive at the hands of kindly pressmen. The introduction of the new radio feature service in the form of “an official news bulletin issued by the Prime Minister’s Department,” is another experiment. The innovation was awaited wjth widespread interest mainly because the authorities responsible for the compilation and presentation of this bulletin had been the lifelong critics of the news services presented to the people by the newspapers of New Zealand. It is therefore interesting to have in concrete form just what the Prime Minister’s Department regards as news. As a matter of fact, so far, no news has found a place in the official news bulletin that does not bear some relation to Departmental activities, with scrupulous regard to the importance of mentioning the name of Ministerial heads. An interesting test of the genuineness of the official news services was provided on question day last week. Many knotty and somewhat unwelcome questions, addressed to Ministers were answered in the House. But what of the news service! The announcer remarked with something like pomposity that Parliament had spent an interesting afternoon on questions, and Ministerial replies had been given to Members who required information on the gold tax, the cash order business, the price of cement and the request for a maternity home in Christchurch. It is safe to say that if when Labour was in Opposition the newspapers had reported question day on the lines pursued by the compilers of the official news bulletin issued by the Prime Minister’s Department, they would have been accused of suppressing important information. Why restrict the news service to the rather innocuous questions and omit to recount the Ministerial answers to the topics that are so much in the public mind. It will be interesting, of course, to watch the development of the news service straight from the Prime Minister and note itg announcements, because it has been insisted by the spokesmen of the Government that the broadcasting service is a national channel through which information undiluted by political propaganda will be given io the people of New Zealand. So fur, however, the first State-controlled news services presented to the people of Nw Zealand has found room for nothing but reports on Departmental doings with particular reference to Ministerial pronouncements and their views.