RADIO POLICY.

Waikato Times, Volume 121, Issue 20273, 16 August 1937, Page 6

RADIO POLICY.

The Prime Minister, as was expected, has taken the wider view with regard to the use of the wireless service for controversial matters. One side of an argument, ho said, could not be allowed to be heard without the other. That docs not necessarily mean that any controversial subject must be discussed, pro and con, in the same session. It might be necessary to have one side given facilities to broadcast one evening and the other side at the following session. Most people will agree with Mr Savage that religious matters should not be debated over the air. The provision made for broadcasting church services appears to be working satisfactorily. There is no apparent reason why it should bo disturbed, and as the list-eners-in can exercise their choice regarding the services there is little, if any, room for complaint. The one controversial matter that cannot be excluded is politics, in its many phases, and it is in this sphere that the question of control becomes of great importance. The test will come in about a year’s time when the Dominion faces another general election. It is then that the statement made by Mr Savage will be of importance because tin* opponents of the Government will be in a position to ask for equal facilities for broadcasting their views. The matter is not one on which agreement can be easily reached so that it would be advisable to entrust to an independent body the work of allotting time and place to political speakers. That would remove any grounds for charges of unfair treatment, and really free the hands of the Government. When the campaign starts there will be times when more than one speaker, or party, will want to use the service. Apart from polities there are, as Mr Savage has stated; many controversial matters, but most of them could be dealt with in tho form of debates, a method that seems to be favoured in Great licit a in. Thev need give no ditfieultv, but political differences, especially at election time, cause so much unnecessary heat, feelings run so high, that unless the control of the wireless service were in the hands of some non-political authority charges of partiality would be made. The Prime Minister has stressed what might bo termed the underlying principle to he adopted —equality of treatment for the parties and interests concerned. It is now solely a ' question us lmw best to put that principle into practice.