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The Dominion
May 3, 1997
Repercussions for Rape Crisis
Letter
to the Editor
by Phil
Wallington, (Executive producer 60 Minutes) (Abridged)
Rape awareness week got off to a bad start in Monday's Dominion, with former
Rape Crisis centre spokeswoman Toni Allwood attacking the journalistic
standards of 60 Minutes in an attempt to mitigate some of the damage she did
to her own organisation.
Last year Ms Allwood and Rape Crisis threw in their lot with a young woman
who had falsely and maliciously accused an innocent young man of rape.
Ms Allwood played a key role in successfully injuncting 60 Minutes to prevent
us naming the convicted perpetrator of this outrage. Ms Allwood was later
interviewed by 60 Minutes as part of a report on the matter.
Her manifest lack of sympathy for the male victim, Nick Wills, offended many
New Zealanders. It caused a flood of indignant letters of protest to 60
Minutes and to Rape Crisis. Subsequent fundraising activities and other
initiatives associated with last year's rape awareness week suffered as a
result.
I was dismayed to read in your article Ms Allwood's oft-repeated assertion
that 60 Minutes deliberately distorted her views by "selectively"
editing an interview with the intention of casting her in the most
unfavourable light.
This was not the case.
Ms Allwood lodged a formal complaint with TVNZ which was not upheld. She
pursued the matter with the Broadcasting Standards Authority, which also failed
to support her claims that 60 Minutes had treated her unfairly.
In spite of this Ms Allwood has stuck to her version of the "facts"
and uses every opportunity to pillory 60 Minutes. The canard which she has
perpetrated now appears to have become part of the folklore down at Rape
Crisis.
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