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The
Dominion
December 1, 1997
Letter to the Editor
Ellis case
by John Read
Senior lecturer, Psychology Department, Auckland
University
If the new allegations of further child abuse by Peter Ellis are true, and
research shows that the vast majority of allegations are true, then those
journalists and politicians who jumped on the hysterical bandwagon created by
20-20's "documentary" need to do some serious thinking.
TV3 needs to choose between responsible, balanced journalism and the
furthering of careers and ratings regardless of the costs to society. Its
programme is the most one-sided "journalism" imaginable.
The only person interviewed who believed that the jury and Court of Appeal
had got it right was the police officer who the "journalists"
diagnosed as mentally unstable (on the basis that his job was stressful!).
I can think of no better example of that tendency to ignore our children when
they are brave enough to tell of their abuse than the response of 20-20 to
the new allegations. It simply repeated its story and pretended nothing had
happened! Do they think, like so many of us, that if we ignore child abuse it
will go away?
Perhaps our television journalists might like to demonstrate a balanced
approach by highlighting the research showing that 32 per cent of New Zealand
women are sexually abused as children.
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