KEY POINTS:
Good on TV3 for broadcasting and being damned. The channel finds itself vilified for airing an interview of sorts with a man claiming to have stolen the Waiouru military medals.
Campbell Live obtained an audio interview with the man and used an actor, hooded and with darkened face, to turn it into television. A note on screen declared the voice, but not the body, to be from central casting. The host, John Campbell, has since conceded that this was a mistake. And it was, but probably just that. Still the channel is condemned: by some for daring to interview a criminal and/or not making the equivalent of a citizen's arrest, and by others for protecting its source by destroying the original audiotape.
TV3 will want to be sure its man is for real. And the interview itself was a bit risible for its revelations. Yet some fundamental principles are at stake. First, TV3 and the media must not be limited to following a police agenda during an investigation. If finding and airing views from criminals are in the public interest, or add to public understanding, then going public can be justified.
In the medals case and an earlier theft, the police and Crown had freed on bail two individuals with criminal backgrounds. The media's duty is to stand back and shine light where there are such deals behind the scenes. Second, as police, lawyers and those with something to hide try to expose journalists' confidential sources by threat of court action, great care must be taken to protect sources' identities. If undertakings of confidentiality are given, they must, in all but the rarest circumstances, be upheld. If not, the sources and the full facts of the story will dry up.
