TVNZ free to show Rainbow Warrior clip

Attempts by French spies Alan Mafart and Dominique Prieur to prevent TVNZ screening video footage of their guilty pleas have been quashed by the Court of Appeal.

In a unanimous decision released today, three Appeal Court judges gave TVNZ permission to obtain and play footage of the agents pleading guilty to the manslaughter of Portuguese photographer Fernando Pereira in the 1985 Rainbow Warrior bombing.

It was later revealed then-president Francois Mitterand authorised the French attack on the ship, which had led Greenpeace's campaign against French nuclear tests on the Mururoa Atoll in the Pacific.

TVNZ intended to show the footage this evening, head of news Bill Ralston told NZPA. It was working on getting the tape into a broadcast-quality format.

Lawyers for the French agents said they had no comment to make on the decision, which their clients had yet to be told about.

- NZPA