Radio New Zealand has been censured by the BSA for spreading further unsubstantiated allegations against Peter Ellis on Linda Clark's Nine To Noon programme on National Radio in August 2003. During the broadcast an anonymous mother and son were interviewed. They made new, unspecified allegations concerning Ellis and the Christchurch Civic Crèche in 1985, which had not been part of the court proceedings concerning the Crèche. The BSA ruled that the broadcast seriously breached standards of fairness and balance, noting that Ellis was being anonymously accused of criminal but unspecified offending of a very serious kind. Ellis had previously declined an invitation to participate in a 'sympathetic' interview, but had not been made aware of the new and decidely vague allegations before they were broadcast. Radio New Zealand has been ordered to pay $5,300 legal costs to the complainant, to broadcast an apology on Nine to Noon, to publish a summary of the decision in the four major metropolitan daily newspapers, and to pay the maximum level of costs to the Crown of $5,000. Ellis, who served a seven-year prison sentence for satanic ritual abuse of children at the creche, has always maintained his innocence. At the time of the National Radio broadcast last year, hundreds of Ellis supporters had signed two petitions attempting to force a Royal Commission of Inquiry into the case, which Justice Minsiter Phil Goff dismissed.
Credit: GayNZ.com News Staff
First published: Wednesday, 8th September 2004 - 12:00pm