PM claims ambush by presenter

By HELEN TUNNAH and AINSLEY THOMSON

Prime Minister Helen Clark has accused TV3 of ambushing her, and of practising unethical journalism after she and presenter John Campbell squared off in a tense interview over the GM corn row last night.

Helen Clark said she was set up by TV3, and in the angry interview filmed on Tuesday she accused Campbell of haranguing her.

At the end of the interview Campbell thanked her for appearing, to which she replied:

"Well I'm not thanking you, I think it's unethical journalism."

She is now reviewing whether she will appear on a TV3 leaders' debate during the election campaign, and whether she should lay any formal complaints.

"If it's not a breach of broadcasting standards, I don't know what is," she told the Herald.

"If someone can think of any good reason why I should ever appear on them again, will they please tell me."

Helen Clark said after the pre-recorded interview ended neither Campbell nor TV3's director of news Mark Jennings would tell her what the questions related to.

She said she had no idea activist Nicky Hager had written a book claiming a Government conspiracy to cover up a release of GM-contaminated corn until it was published yesterday.

During the hard-hitting exchange, Campbell persisted with questioning about whether genetically modified corn had been released in New Zealand, grown and eaten.

He continued to ask about it, despite the Prime Minister saying she did not have enough information to answer him.

Mr Jennings issued a statement last night saying TV3 had been working on the story relating to Hager's book for some time, and the issues raised should be put to the Prime Minister.

"We believe this is a significant story about a subject of major importance to a large number of New Zealanders."

He said Helen Clark's staff had been told she would be asked about whether the public could trust the Government on GM, and what advice it had received. That was sufficient advance detail, he said.

Wellington-based Nicky Hager, 43, shot to prominence during the 1980s as a spokesman for the Coalition against Nuclear Warships.

His 1996 book Secret Power, which cracked the workings of the international Echelon spy network, was internationally acclaimed.

Three years later, Hager and co-author Bob Burton released Secrets and Lies, which dealt with the rise of the public relations industry.

It alleged then Prime Minister Jenny Shipley and her staff helped Timberlands and its public relations firm lobby officials for policy favouring continued selective logging of native forests.

Mrs Shipley denied the allegations.

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