Donald Matheson: Professor on newly announced Polkinghorne drama series

The high profile murder trial in which Philip Polkinghorne was found not guilty of murdering his wife Pauline Hanna is set to be turned into a drama series. 

Development of the dramatised storytelling was announced today by South Pacific Pictures. 

Professor of Media and Communications at Canterbury University Donald Matheson joins Francesca Rudkin with more. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
The high profile murder trial in which Philip Pokinghorn was
found not guilty of murdering his wife, Pauline Hannah, is
set to be turned into a drama series. Development of
the dramatized storytelling was announced today by South Pacific Pictures.
This comes after veteran documentary maker Mac McNeil confirmed he
is creating a three part documentary series on the trial.

(00:20):
Donald Matheson is a professor of Media and Communications at
Canterbury University, and he is with me now, good afternoon, Donald,
Im sure do we need another project retelling this story?

Speaker 2 (00:34):
It seems that we were early, and I know that
media organizations are really keen to get in quite early
to grab the story before someone else does and also
before interest in it wings. But it fails to me.
Too soon after the trial, after Olin Hanna's death, thinking
of all the people who have caught for the charm

(00:55):
of the trial, then the inquest, and then they'll be
this dramatization coming out after that seems to me like,
you know, if you're profiting from other people's suffering, you
need to leave a bit of time to elapse so
that that suffering lessons are weaver.

Speaker 1 (01:11):
I couldn't agree with you more. Is there a risk
of defamation or an accuracy with media projects like this.

Speaker 2 (01:19):
If they stick close to the material that was raised
in the court. I suppose they are. You know, they'll
they'll have people looking closely at that. There was a
lot of material for them to look at. Then maybe
they'll be okay. I think the worry is more that
it's kind of relitigating the trial, and I think that

(01:40):
has to be quite a big public interest in doing that.
You know, evidence that hasn't been heard or things that
haven't been dealt with adequately in the trial, and then
there's a case for someone to come in and and
do a public investigation into into the story or a dramatization.
But I haven't heard any any statement like that from

(02:03):
the from the publicity that's come out.

Speaker 1 (02:05):
I mean, we still have a coronial inquest to go to,
don't we The trial was quite literally live blogged from
the courtroom. What were your thoughts on the ethics of
media coverage like this.

Speaker 2 (02:16):
Yeah, there's always a risk when you're when you're live
blogging or live covering a trial, that you'll be focusing
on the things that have been said in the moment
and not putting them into the context of each other.
And so you're throwing a whole lot of details at
people without putting them into context. And that doesn't you know,
there's a risk to public understanding of the story there.

(02:40):
I mean, judges have got the capacity to restrict that.
It's worried that something might be said and name suppressed,
and that if it was being covered live, that that
could go out with the suppression at risk. But I
think the big issue is that it it can get

(03:01):
a bit vioristic. It's about the excitement of hearing things
live rather than understanding the justice process and action.

Speaker 1 (03:08):
Donald, thank you so much for your thoughts. Appreciated. That
was Donald Matheson, Professor of Media and Communications at Canterbury University.

Speaker 2 (03:15):
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