Former Editor, Stewart Purvis says Palace will regret funeral footage veto
23 September 2022, 13:28
"Overseas broadcasters will say, 'you must be joking'."
ITN's Former Editor in Chief, Stewart Purvis says that the Palace will regret funeral footage veto saying it is "in principle wrong"
Prior to Queen Elizabeths funeral, the Palace was given the right to request that particular pieces of footage from the services at Westminster Abbey and Windsor Castle were not used again by news broadcasters.
BBC, ITV News and Sky News were sent footage timestamps they wanted to exclude from future news broadcasts and online usage. As a result, five short clips were removed from circulation.
Former ITN, Editor in Chief Stewart Purvis, told Nick Ferrari that: "There will have been discussions before hand about where camera's are positioned and what kind of shots they would get."
Stewart added: "What I am shocked about is the idea that there was a live broadcast and that the palace has managed to achieve an editing facility which broadcasters will not show again shots they have already shown."
The British broadcaster revealed to Nick that in his previous work dealing with "overseas broadcasters", if this were to happen they would say "You must be joking!".
Nick asked: "What’s troubling you Stewart, is it a precedent that could be set?"
He replied: "Once it’s been transmitted, once we recorded in our own homes and our own video recorders and suddenly we’re being told that certain sequences didn't happen, we can't show them again and it’s just unrealistic."
"There’s no other way of interpreting that than effectively not censorship but basically self censorship".
"It was wonderful coverage and I think the Palace will reflect that they have made a mistake."
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