The Evening Star THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 1935. THE CRY ABOUT “MUZZLING.”

Evening Star, Issue 22144, 26 September 1935, Page 10

The Evening Star THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 1935. THE CRY ABOUT “MUZZLING.”

Tke Budget would seem to present an unfruitful field for criticism to opponents of the Government when so much of the time of several of them was given last night to the wildest sort ,of tirades against the supposed “muzzling ’ ’ of B wireless stations, and of opinions generally in this free country. Who is muzzling the B stations? The position apparently is that they got themselves into difficulties by ignoring certain vested financial rights in the gramophone records which make the chief matter for their programmes. The issue might have been settled on a reasonable basis but for the fact that claims advanced by the gramophone companies and the Performing Rights Association, of Australia were treated too lightly by a proportion of the stations, causing them to ■be reaffirmed on a basis which may not admit so easily of adjustment. The A stations pay for the rights in question. The natural waiy for the B stations to pay for them, assuming the demands to be first reduced, which is a matter for negotiation, would he by requiring from their admirers a' small extra charge. But/ though the admirers of B station programmes, to judge by their panegyrics of them, are among the most enthusiastic • members of the community, they do not seem -to take readily to extra charges. Another, solution has been urged as the only practicable one. It is that the B stations, who have a business interest in their provision of entertainment, should be assisted to gain. a revenue out of which, demands might be met by permission to mix. advertising with their programmes. Refusal to grant this privilege, full exploitation of which wpuld mak© broadcasting a Horror, has caused the Government to be assailed, and attacks have been extended to the Press. It is implied that advertising would never be carried to excess, even though curtailment of it would mean loss of revenue. The-answer to that is that when “ sponsored ” programmes, making the thin end of the wedge of advertising, were allowed two years ago, and extensions granted in reply to requests, the - Minister had to complain of ..the regulations being exceeded continually, making it necessary to withdraw the right. That does not seem to be'a matter for which the Government should he blamed. Why the Labour Party should be interested in this matter is very obviops.; In the . first place, there may be votes to gain. Secondly, the Labour Party can never talk sufficiently to' satisfy its own zeal in its cause, and it can never have too much publicity. It hates the prospect that any- possible medium for propaganda should be reduced. .

Ite grievance' is • bound up with the conservative policy of the Broadcasting Board of New Zealand towards political broadcasting. It is anxious that election speeches should be broadcast. The Minister has stated that he also would be .pleased to see some, provision of that kind arranged for. The matter is still under consideration. But the difficulties that complicate it arc obvious. With three parties in the field, not to mention'lndependents, between 200 and 3Qo’candidates are promised for the next elections. If all of those are to have -.the-right

programmes of the national stations may as well be all suspended, for the three or four weeks preceding the trial of strength. New Zealand, so far as the air is concerned, will have most likeness to pandemonium. And already, before an allocation is made, Mr Veitch, representing the third party, is declaring his conviction that the parties never will be fairly treated. Mr Savage is hurt because a summary of the Budget was broadcast last tveek, and not his criticism of it; The difference between the two things should be plain. The summary of the Budget was news; the criticism was no more than opinions. And here another point copies in. Mr Savage’s criticism of the Budget was duly published in that Press which he joins with the Government as an agent in “ muzzling ” opinion. He will repeat it again and again, as will all his followers before the election, and so will the Press, because that is its manner. It was published, and will be published again, with the aid of those cheap rates for newspaper telegrams in which Mr Langstone finds .a grievance, though they are only in the nature of the reduced bulk charges which apply to all business, and have their use in assisting that full representativeness, alike of news and opinions, which has won for the New Zealand Press general admiration. In the newspapers which some Labour politicians malign all shades of opinion are represented. That principle is not expected to be followed in purely Labour journals, and we know no British newspapers in which it is carried so far. To return to broadcasting, it seems a bold complaint that there is too little of that in this small country. The Broadcasting Board has eight stations of its own, and subsidises nine others. No small consideration has been shown by it to individual B stations.