by Sue Kedgley
150 people showed up last night to a Save Radio New Zealand meeting organised jointly by myself and Wellington Central MP Grant Robertson.
Gaylene Preston and Jon Johansson also spoke, along with many members of the audience, all voicing their concern that the government’s decision to freeze Radio New Zealand’s funding indefinitely will undermine the quality and independence of Radio New Zealand.
Dr Jon Johansson
It’s odd that conservative governments the world over seem to dislike public service radio. George Bush targeted public service broadcasting and John Howard spent years attacking Australian national radio. It was only a public revolt that saved public service radio in Australia and I suspect it will be the same here.
Reading an exchange of letters between the Minister and Radio New Zealand’s Board, it appears that the Minister is using the funding crisis that he has created to try to force Radio New Zealand to adopt a more commercial model –just as he did to TVNZ.
He is demanding a ‘change of mindset’ on the part of the Board, and an exploration of ‘other revenue models’ –which is obviously code for demanding that Radio New Zealand take a more commercial approach. He has also floated loopy ideas such as reducing or shutting down the Auckland office of Radio New Zealand and introducing sponsorship (how about McDonald’s Morning Report, or Charlie’s Checkpoint?). And he is now floating the idea of Radio New Zealand sharing its news office with Maori TV and TVNZ 6 and 7!
The Minister is trying to create the impression that New Zealand can’t afford Radio New Zealand in its present form. But clearly, it is all a matter of priorities. If any project is called a motorway the government can’t bend over far enough to find an extra billion dollars or so. And now we learn its about to give a $4 million subsidy to mining companies to help them explore mining in our precious national parks! And somehow the Government just managed to find $30 odd million to fund private schools and the America’s cup!
The Minister does not seem able to grasp why it is important that we have one public service broadcaster left in New Zealand that is free from commercial pressures; that is not beholden to advertisers and sponsors, but only to its listeners; and that can hold corporations as well as governments to account, without fear or favour. Or perhaps that’s what he is worried about.
As Brian Edwards has pointed out in a recent blog, it is almost impossible to have quality broadcasting in a commercial radio environment, because the saturation level of advertising required to keep a commercial radio station viable makes in depth coverage of complex social and political issues almost impossible. Everything is reduced to bite sized chunks that fit around advertisements and there’s no room for extended interviews or in depth discussions of complex ideas, which are the daily fare of Radio New Zealand.
It was great to see a Radio Zealand reporter turn up to cover the meeting, because clearly there are moves to stop Radio New Zealand staff from discussing the funding cuts. The Acting Chief Executive of the Department of Culture and Heritage advised the Minister of Broadcasting recently –‘you may wish to indicate your concern to the Board about continued public comment by Radio New Zealand about funding.’ In other words, you may wish to gag Radio New Zealand. So it’s great to see that they haven’t bowed to this pressure yet.
Published in Featured | Justice & Democracy by Sue Kedgley on Wed, March 17th, 2010
Tags: Gaylene Preston, grant robertson, Jon Johansson, Public meeting, Radio NZ
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on the trolls and those who are unable to keep on topic
We can’t afford to keep people informed so we are going to have to tighten our belts and go with the misinformation model.
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It’s the ‘no information’ model that’s on the cards.
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NOT GUILTY
http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/national/3466306/Waihopai-activists-found-not-guilty
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“Lawyers admitted the men attacked the base but said they were driven by a belief that the satellite caused human suffering and their actions to shut it down, if only temporarily, were lawful.”
bit of a lie there I think given that they told John Campbell that they won’t do it again as “now more people know what it does”.
[frog: greenfly, jh. It is an interesting verdict, but discussion should be on the General Debate thread, unless Keith Locke or I decide to start a specific thread on it.]
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Many thanks for this report and related links. I was pleased to hear the piece on Morning Report this morning (Wed. 17 March). I can understand why RNZ hasn’t spent too much time covering this issue, but we should do what we can to highlight the insanity of what the current government is doing. Sue, your report about the fellow who called you to say that RNZ was, for him, the “University of Life” really struck a chord with me. The underfunding of public radio makes about as much sense as the underfunding of education. As the effects of the recession continue to bite, and as the public continues to grapple with its causes, the need for spaces that can support substantial public conversation becomes more urgent than ever.
Mark McGuire
http://markmcguire.net/2010/03/17/716/
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Catherine Ryan demonstrates the high standard of RNZ in the two guest interviews this morning with regard to the attack on our defence installation at Waihopai by left-wing activists posing as clergy.
The audio link will be available soon.
ps: Pfffffffffttttt!
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Very good point re the ‘we cant afford to keep you informed’ so we are cutting back on public broadcasting. Not that we can call TVNZ a public service broadcaster anymore, sadly, but note they are about to make savage cuts to TVNZ’s news and current affairs as well, to keep us even less informed. Perhaps the government is hoping that by all these cuts to public broadcasting, the populace wont notice some of the things it is getting up to. Sue K
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$5 million cut from News and Current Affairs budget.
Nothing
to
see
here.
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