Australian-Media.com.au News

• Nine feed cut during live election debate

  October 21 2007 10:52pm (UTC+8)  -  Article by cartman

  The Nine Network is crying foul after its clean feed of the election debate was cut during a special live broadcast of its 60 Minutes program on Sunday night.
  
  The network defied government stipulation which prevented it from using an audience reaction tool known as the "worm" during the live broadcast of the debate.
  
  Nine’s director of news and current affairs, John Westacott, said that the decision to cut the feed was "blatant political censorship", defending the decision made by the network.
  
  Host of the broadcast, Ray Martin explained at the end of the program that their feed had been cut and that Nine had switched to a feed from Sky News in order to continue the broadcast.
  
  "Obviously the worm offended someone," said Martin. "So much for free speech in Australia".
  
  It’s not known who made the decision to cut off Nine’s feed.