Radio station faces Electoral Finance Act prosecution

NZPA | Friday October 10, 2008 - 06:11pm

Radio station NewstalkZB has been referred to police for possible prosecution over an alleged breach of the Electoral Finance Act.

The commission acted on a complaint about NewstalkZB talkback broadcasts hosted by New Zealand First leader Winston Peters and Labour Cabinet minister Shane Jones in June.

In each of the programmes the hosts very briefly implied listeners should vote for their respective parties, and the commission said there was no evidence that either programme contained a promoter statement at any time.

The station's owners, the Radio Network, said the Electoral Commission was badly misguided in deciding to refer the breach to police for possible prosecution.

"This decision simply lacks practicality or common sense," Radio Network general manager talk programming Bill Francis said.

"On the basis of this decision, there are clearly serious implications for all media in terms of what people say and is broadcast or recorded in print."

"We are extremely surprised that the Electoral Commission has come to the view that there has been a transgression of the Electoral Finance Act and the Broadcasting Act in the context of the broadcasts concerned," Mr Francis said.

"The programmes were aimed at providing information and entertainment, with which the commission agreed, and the comments being investigated comprised just a few seconds within broadcasts spanning three and a half hours. In each case, the comments were one-liners -- just throw-away lines.

"Common sense has not prevailed in this situation unfortunately."

Comments

EFA Prosecution

This is yet another example of how the extreme views of a group of public servants have played a very destructive role in our democratic process.
For three years the political discussion has been distorted by attempts to clear up the issue of funding electoral campaigns. As I recall it was the Solicitor General who started the whole thing off by ruling that all parties but the National party were breaking the rules. Of course the Nats pushed to maximise this advantage, and unfortunately the media industry seems to have focussed too hard on the possibility of a multi million dolar revenue stream being developed.
The issue was never that politicians should not urge people to vote for them, but that their financial supporters must reveal themselves, and interested parties should be in public view.

I have heard one of the broadcasts currently under scrutiny.

In no way can this be an attempt to thwart the intent of the act .

Quite clearly it fits the exemptions set out in the act for "any content of a radio or television programme, solely for the purpose of informing, enlightening, or entertaining its audience:"

I think a coterie of highly placed public servants are wilfully subverting the democratic process.

Posted by Bruce Thorpe at 08:53 am on October 11, 2008