The premature airing of campaign advertisements for Peter
Dunne's United Future Party has seen the Radio Network become
the latest broadcaster to be referred to police for alleged
breaches of the Broadcasting Act.
The Electoral Commission yesterday said it had referred the
broadcaster to the police for broadcasting election
programmes for United Future on October 25, 2011.
"It is the Electoral Commission's view that the broadcasts
for United Future on October 25 constituted a breach of
section 70 of the Broadcasting Act 1989 because broadcasters
were prohibited from broadcasting election programmes for a
political party outside of the election period for the 2011
General Election, which began on October 26 and ended on
November 25, 2011", the commission said on its website.
A spokesman for Mr Dunne said the matter related to United
Future campaign advertisements featuring the voice of Mr
Dunne which were played a day too early in error by the Radio
Network.
"We weren't even aware of it at the time", the spokesman
said.
Earlier this month, the commission referred TVNZ to the
police for an election night news broadcast, and also
referred RadioLive over its broadcast of the "Prime
Minister's Hour" on September 30 last year.
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