BY TERRY JACKSON

 Univision's broadcast of a Gonzalez family video that shows Elian telling his father
 he doesn't want to return to Cuba has ignited charges that the network acted
 improperly in how it handled the tape and wrongly tried to brand it as an ``exclusive.''

 The decision to air the tape also is controversial because it revives a longstanding
 TV news ethics debate: Should stations or networks use a tape when they don't
 know the circumstances under which it was made?

 An executive at Telemundo, Univision's chief Spanish-language rival, said
 Thursday Univision violated an agreement with representatives for Lazaro
 Gonzalez. Joe Peyronnin, Telemundo's executive vice president for news, said the
 Gonzalez family gave Univision the tape with the understanding the network would
 copy it and freely distribute it to other news organizations. Such practices, called
 pools, are common within the industry.

 ``They were supposed to give it to everybody,'' Peyronnin said. ``Instead they
 exploited it for their own purposes.''

 A Univision spokesman refused to discuss the issue Thursday, but news
 directors at several English-language stations confirmed Peyronnin's version of
 events.

 VIDEO WITHHELD

 According to Peyronnin and others, the Gonzalez family gave the home video to a
 Univision reporter at about 1:30 a.m. Thursday, shortly after it was made. But
 when WSVN-Fox 7, which kept its news show on the air until 3 a.m., asked for a
 copy, Univision refused, saying it would not release copies until the footage first
 aired on its 6 a.m. newscast.

 When Univision finally handed out copies to the English-language stations after 7
 a.m., the Elian tape now had a Univision logo superimposed in the upper
 right-hand corner -- branding the tape as an exclusive.

 Peyronnin said Telemundo contacted the Gonzalez family, learned of the pool
 arrangement, and demanded from Univision a ``clean'' copy of the Elian tape,
 minus the network logo. After first refusing, Univision complied at about 10 a.m.,
 Peyronnin said.

 ``I think that they acted inappropriately,'' he said. ``A major network news
 organization doesn't do that sort of thing.''

 ETHICAL DEBATE

 No matter how the tape was handled, its use by news organizations raises ethical
 issues.

 A general rule of television news is that organizations avoid using video if they
 didn't produce it or don't know the circumstances under which it was produced.

 CBS' 60 Minutes ran into heavy criticism on Nov. 22, 1998, when the show ran
 video provided by Dr. Jack Kevorkian showing a man suffering from Lou Gehrig's
 Disease dying as Kevorkian injected him with a lethal drug.

 Aside from the propriety of depicting a man's death, at issue was whether
 Kevorkian's video might have left out key details that would have put the incident
 in a different context.

 The Elian video, aside from the propriety of filming a 6-year-old, raises issues of
 whether Elian was coached and the circumstances under which his statements
 were made.

 ``If one does decide to use a tape like this, you have to be very clear to the viewer
 that it was hand-out,'' said Peyronnin, whose network did air the tape.

 ``Clearly this is being handed out to influence people.''

                     Copyright 2000 Miami Herald