By GREGG WYCHERLEY
The National Party says a Government plan to turn Television New Zealand into a BBC-style public broadcaster is a "death warrant" for the state-owned company.
National MP Murray McCully has obtained a copy of what he claims is the final version of the TVNZ charter.
"It is not going too far to describe this document as a death warrant for TVNZ - assessed by Government advisers last year as one of the five best businesses owned by the taxpayers of New Zealand," he said.
But Prime Minister Helen Clark described the claim as "outrageous." She said the charter had not been completed and the document was probably a working draft.
"McCully wanted TVNZ run simply as a competitive commercial enterprise," she said.
"It can run commercially, attract good advertising, attract good audiences, but there are some things in the public interest it is important to do."
Mr McCully said it was obvious that Broadcasting Minister Marian Hobbs had been avoiding releasing the charter.
"The only way this charter could work would be if Marian Hobbs confiscated every TV remote in the country," he said.
One of the edicts of the document was for TVNZ to "feature programmes that promote Maori language and culture to all New Zealanders."
Mr McCully criticised it as "code for showing Maori programmes in prime time."
He said TV One's anticipating the charter by showing highbrow documentaries in prime time in recent weeks had caused a ratings disaster.
TVNZ was forced to compensate advertisers after Nga Tohu: Signatures and Feathers of Peace rated badly.
Mr McCully also criticised as "political correction" the direction that programmes dealing with minority interests are to be shown to "mass audiences."
"Its authors fail to understand that mass audiences cease to be mass audiences as quickly as viewers can locate their remote controls when confronted by the politically correct programmes prescribed by Broadcasting Minister Marian Hobbs.
"TVNZ's competitors will rub their hands with glee as hundreds of thousands of viewers and tens of millions of dollars desert the current market leader.
"TVNZ's profitability and value will be massively eroded by this charter. It is richly ironic that Marian Hobbs, who has been so rabidly opposed to privatising TVNZ, will be the minister who actually gives the company away to its competitors."
Helen Clark said she had watched the "excellent" documentaries and and was delighted at their ratings.
"A quarter of a million people watched them - fantastic."
TVNZ draft charter
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