KEY POINTS:
TV One's Sunday programme has been ordered to pay $6000 in costs and compensation and broadcast a statement of findings after complaints about an item on the Family Court were upheld.
The complaints to the Broadcasting Standards Authority related to the item, entitled The F Word, broadcast last
July.
The report concerned fathers frustrated with the Family Court system. Sunday featured lengthy interviews with two who had been involved in custody disputes and identified the 8-year-old daughter of one of them.
It said the father, G.B., was battling the court to gain access to the girl, N.B. G.B. was interviewed and about a minute of home video footage of his daughter was shown.
Later he was shown speaking on the telephone to the girl and her responses could be heard and were subtitled. From New South Wales, J.B., the mother of N.B., complained to Television New Zealand.
She said the programme:
* Lacked balance. It had focused mainly on the fathers' views and gave only limited coverage of the Family Court's viewpoint. The viewpoints of the mothers and children were significant sides to the story, but these were not included.
* Was inaccurate.
* Breached privacy: J.B. maintained the programme had breached her daughter's privacy by showing video footage of her, referring to her by name and airing a portion of a taped telephone conversation.
J.B. also argued that it was inaccurate to imply that it was easy for a mother to get the court to issue decisions against the father by accusing him of abuse.
TVNZ submitted that J.B. had misunderstood what the programme was about.
It was not about the plight of the mother and child, it said, but was trying to answer the question, "What are these men about?"
TVNZ disagreed that Sunday had "used" J.B.'s daughter and said balance in the programme had been provided by Family Court barrister Judith Surgenor, Australian lawyer Michael Green and Justice Minister Mark Burdon.
It stated it could not identify any "provable inaccuracies" and argued that the pictures of N.B. did not represent exploitation or humiliation of a child.
The authority ruled that the programme had breached N.B.'s privacy. It also found that irrespective of the fact G.B. consented to the breach of his daughter's privacy, TVNZ failed to satisfy itself that the broadcast was in her best interests. It believed the broadcast did exploit N.B.
The authority ordered TVNZ to broadcast a comprehensive summary of the upheld aspects of its decision.
The Crown-owned company was also ordered to pay $500 to N.B. as compensation for the breach of her privacy, pay the complainant J.B. $3000 in costs and pay the Crown $2500 in costs.
- NZPA