URGENT – 9PM EST: MEDIA RELEASE – TV AD PULLED BY CHANNEL 9!!

MEDIA RELEASE 29 MARCH 2015 9pm EST

NOT MORE CENSORSHIP!?

AMF ad pulled without warning by Channel 9

Without any reason given, the new Australian Marriage Forum ad booked for broadcast nationwide on Channel 9 tonight has been pulled. AMF condemns this silencing of their voice on the vital issue of same-sex ‘marriage’.

Only hours after sending a media release announcing the latest ad in their campaign, “Think of the Child”, the President of the Australian Marriage Forum has reported that Channel 9 has pulled the ad, without any notice or explanation.

“I was gobsmacked to get a call from our advertising agent at 6.45 EST, who got a call at 6.29 EST from Channel 9 saying they had pulled the ad from the 6pm news. It was meant to have been shown in Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Hobart by then and other state and territory capitals soon after” Dr van Gend said.

“No explanation has been given. A follow-up email from our advertising agent at 6.45 Brisbane time states:

Further to our conversation earlier, I confirm that I was called by a representative of Ch9 at 5:29 pm Brisbane time to inform me that they will not be proceeding with the 30 second commercial we booked on the nine network that were due to air in their 6pm news service.  By the time we received this call, most ads should have already aired.
 


At this stage, we have not been given a reason as to why they decided not to air our commercial, despite receiving written confirmation that the booking was proceeding as planned. I’ve asked for a written explanation and have not received any written explanation to date.

“In other words, after our media release had gone to hundreds of journalists announcing the broadcast, and an email blast to our 68,000 supporters, and our tweet announcing the ad was on air, we get told it has been pulled”, Dr van Gend said.

This is the ad, which argues that we as a nation have apologised once for violating the bond between mother and child, and should not contemplate another policy – marriage rights for two men – that would again violate the bond between mother and child:

The bond between mother and child was broken, and we have apologised:

“The most primal and sacred bond there is - the bond between a mother and her baby.”

The primal bond between mother and child would be broken again

if we institute marriage without a woman,

which creates families without a mother.

Who will apologise to the Motherless Generation?”

 

You Tube: https://youtu.be/_U0e66iyVI8

TV version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_siQWMK3mc

 

“I am not easily disturbed, but if this is what our ‘free society’ is coming to, when an intelligent contribution to a vital public debate, fully approved by the CAD regulator and duly contracted by the TV station, is suddenly pulled without prior notification - that is a little disturbing”, Dr van Gend said tonight.

“We did everything properly and the ad was given an open rating by the regulator, CAD. If there was anything improper about the ad it would not have received CAD approval.

“Coming so soon after the blatant ideological censorship of our first ad by SBS – for which we have still received no explanation – this bombshell from Channel 9 is beyond belief.

“Of course, Channel 9 is not a government broadcaster, but if they censored us for ‘commercial’ reasons the way SBS censored us for ‘ideological’ reasons, what does that say about free public debate on matters of political importance? How are those citizens who support the current legal definition of marriage going to be able to take part in public debate?  Maybe there is some other explanation for Channel 9’s actions – but we have been given none so far” Dr van Gend said.

“We raised $42,000 for these ads in the last fortnight, and every dollar came through crowd-funding from hundreds of Australians who donated via our website. These citizens care about this issue and want their voice to be heard. Now they have been silenced by Channel 9 the way they were silenced three weeks ago by SBS.

“We have had enough of this silencing of our voice and our sincere and relevant arguments, and we demand an explanation from Channel 9 as to why they pulled our fully-approved ad at the very last minute.

“This event, coming so soon after the SBS scandal, is a test of whether or not Australia really is a free society where citizens are able to put their case in the public square on matters of public importance”, Dr van Gend concluded. 

Dr David van Gend
President, Australian Marriage Forum

 

UPDATE 30th March

We have been told by supporters in Hobart and Canberra that it did show on WIN TV - which is linked to Channel 9 in the booking of ads, but has a different management.

So the ad has "had a life" but only in those two cities... and perhaps Darwin.

What was so powerful about this message that it had to be silenced??

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