By Glenn Dyer


The Seven and Nine Networks will be back
in the Federal Court on Thursday after Seven obtained an injunction
last Thursday afternoon to prevent Nine from showing a program called DAREing the Kokoda,
a special that was originally due to air on Thursday night with Mike
Munro as the host. Seven claims the program contains footage it had
used on Anzac Day in 2004 in an 18-minute two part special on Today Tonight, its 6.30pm current affairs show.

Seven said that it had given the footage to Camp Dare, the group that was involved in the Today Tonight story, after the special report had gone to air. The story received publicity on Good Friday.
Camp Dare, Seven claims, had said it wanted to make an internal video
for its own use and had been surprised to see the Nine promotions for
the program to be shown at 8.30pm last Thursday.

After the injunction, Nine ran a special of highlights from This Is Your Life, with Mike Munro hosting. On Thursday evening at 6.30pm, Today Tonight showed an updated report on the Kokoda story with a couple of the young men who went on the trek. Here’s the report.

Why
Nine would use vision that had already gone to air on Seven is not
known. TV networks usually don’t do that in longer format specials,
athough they’re less choosy in news and current affairs when the vision
is of particular interest. The fact that Seven has pre-empted the story
by its update on Today Tonight will mean that Nine will not put the special to air in its present form.

It’s
not in the schedule for this Thursday and with the second period of the
2005 ratings starting next Sunday night, it’s hard to see it being used
in the immediate future.