Brownlee Slams TVNZ for Gathering News
A few days late - the shouting happened on Thursday - but still worth a mention. (Hat tip: Lyndon Hood, offline prodding.)
Gerry Brownlee demanded to know why TVNZ turned up to Commodore Bainimarama’s press conference on Tuesday night at which he announced that the military had taken control of Fiji.
“This is not a question about whether the Commodore’s threats were news. They were. This is a question about whether, without TVNZ’s satellite assistance, the Commodore would have been as effective in his campaign of fear.”
Almost all political activity happens today with half an eye on the television camera. To suggest that a news organisation shouldn’t cover the news because the subjects of the news story might be trying to promote themselves is ridiculous. If we’re going to play that game we should start by not showing anyone grandstanding during Parliamentary question time.
How far do you take this argument? The most spectacular television event of the last few years was the attack on the World Trade Center. It was an attack perfectly devised to take advantage of the 24-hour live network news world. Would Brownlee suggest that a news network refuse to report the event because showing that gripping horror live was part of al-Qaeda’s propaganda?
Andrew Little, national secretary of the EPMU (which represents journalists) got it spot on:
“Television New Zealand news is run by professional journalists and has a duty to cover news of major significance,” he said.
“They and they alone should decide what should be covered. The day that a politician decides what the state broadcaster covers will be a sad day for the integrity of New Zealand democracy.
“The union is seeking an assurance from the National Party that media censorship is not National Party policy.”
Where I’m sure I would part company with Little is in thinking that there should be no such thing as a “state broadcaster”. Political interference is far more likely when the state owns a major news broadcaster. If TV3 had made the broadcast, it couldn’t have been used by Brownlee to try and score points in his role as State Owned Enterprises spokesman. The state has no role either owning a television station or telling it what to broadcast.
December 11th, 2006 at 5:00 pm
Indeed the government has no business owning a television station and indeed TVNZ’s reporters should be the ones deciding what to broadcast.
On a side note: I am writing a report for personal reasons on the cost of taxes and what would happen if tax rates were lowered, thresholds were raised, and if taxes were totally removed (with the latter being my preference). Can you recommend any good sources of information for it?