RE: Rosalie Bertell

["Bjorn Cedervall" <bcradsafers@hotmail.com>]

>The response from the regulator was that these regulations, which >prohibit 
>the broadcast of false or misleading news, do not apply to a >program like 
>The Nature of Things. Our public broadcaster has also >taken a position, 
>with regard to their own journalistic policy, that >is consistent with that 
>of the broadcast regulator. They consider this >type of programming "arts 
>and entertainment" so that their >journalistic policy (which would 
>otherwise also be clearly violated) >does not apply.

I and two other people (who complained independently) got a very similar 
response from the Swedish broadcast regulators in 1987. The story was about 
Bq in mushrooms and whether the Barsebaeck nuclear power plant could explode 
like an atomic bomb (a follow-up program of the Chernobyl disaster).

In the radio studio were several wellknown anti-nuclear activists a few of 
whom were there to appear as "experts"  - none of them has a degree relating 
to radiation. The program was very biased and some facts were totally wrong. 
Our point was that the errors should be corrected. The bottom line - one 
year later - was that the only accepted criticism was about one of the radio 
people ("actors" - see below) who had attacked some named person. This was 
commented that one year later on the radio at 11 p.m. - the errors were 
never mentioned.

The response from the broadcast regulator explained that "the purpose of the 
documentary (//a classification of the type of program//) was to contribute 
to the diversity of the news." And then approx. as follows:

"The documentary is a reflection/representation from a special perspective 
that is dependent on the originator's personality and temper. Therefore the 
requirement for objectivity/lack of bias is lower for these types of 
programs (as is the case for plays with actors about real events that are 
represented by personal experiences) contrasting other types of reports 
about the society."

My questions were:
1. Does the general public know that a "documentary" is a Hollywood type of 
work?
2. Was the key person with the "scientist image" in the program there as an 
actor? (definitely not!)

My personal ideas and opinions,

Bjorn Cedervall   bcradsafers@hotmail.com
For you who read Swedish, that exact text from the broadcast regulator can 
be found at my website
http://www.geocities.com/bjorn_cedervall/
(Click on "Scandinavian visitors" and scroll down to number 2).

________________________________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com

************************************************************************
The RADSAFE Frequently Asked Questions list, archives and subscription
information can be accessed at http://www.ehs.uiuc.edu/~rad/radsafe.html