The pre election Bryan Bruce documentary ‘Inside Child Poverty’ is creating plenty of discussion again.

Doco censorship called an ‘affront to democracy’

The problem is not censorship (which won’t happen), or whether it should have been aired before the election or not.

The biggest problem is timing.

If the documentary was aimed at generating discussion and debate during the election campaign it would have been shown a few weeks out.

Airing it just a few days before the election makes it look like it was designed to influence the election, with scant time for appraisal or debate..

It questions the motives of TV3, through this and other campaign stunts like their tea cup obsession.

The timing of the documentary was an ‘affront to democracy’. And the TV3 campaign was an ‘affront to journalism’.