TV3 banned from New Zealand Parliament for three days

August 28, 2006

House Speaker told New Zealand television station, owned by , they are banned from recording  for three days.

The ban comes after they showed footage of the Member of Parliament (MP)  repeatedly pulling his middle finger at National MP  on August 1.

TV3's ban will come into force tomorrow.

The Parliament's media rules state that only the Speaker or an MP who is standing and speaking can be recorded. TV3 broke this rule as 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."