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August 28, 2006

Speaker Margaret Wilson has informed New Zealand television station, TV3, owned by Canwest, that they have been banned from filming New Zealand Parliament for three days.

The ban comes after they showed footage of New Zealand First Member of Parliament (MP) Ron Mark repeatedly pulling his middle finger at National MP Tau Henare on August 1.

TV3's ban will come into force from tomorrow.

Parliaments media rules state that only the Speaker or a MP that is standing and speaking can be filmed. TV3 broke this rule because Mark was sitting during his gestures.

"The rules are arcane. We were only showing what would have been observed by members of the public if they had been sitting in the public gallery on that day," said the Director of News and Current Affairs for TV3, Mark Jennings. "Politicians behaving badly is a news story, and the public have a right to see what is really going on in the debating Chamber."

"We will accept our punishment and get on with our job, but it is time politicians took responsibility for their behaviour and stopped shooting the messenger," Jennings said.

"That argument was not accepted last year, and I do not accept it now", Ms Wilson says referring to a breach of the rules last year.

"In addition, this time TV3 repeated the shots in question even though it knew they were in breach of the rules. This was clearly a premeditated breach."

Sources

• NZPA "TV3 punished for finger footage". stuff, August 28, 2006

• "TV3 banned from Parliament". Newstalk ZB, August 28, 2006

• "TV3 gets 3-day parliamentary ban". NBR, August 28, 2006