Wheels squeaky and wobbly on public media reform
Editorial independence and competition concerns dominate submissions from commercial and public media on public media bill.
In today’s edition: government considering lifting number of RSE workers; what happened to free childcare; New Zealanders protest after Mahsa Amini’s death; but first, what submissions on public media bill said.
Submission on ANZPM bill closed last week (Image: (Tina Tiller)
“The worst day yet for the merger”
You might have noticed that the Queen's memorial service was broadcast yesterday on Newshub and RNZ, and not via the state broadcaster, TVNZ. Duncan Greive writes that in the current climate of discord about the proposed reform of public media and merger of RNZ and TVNZ to form Aotearoa New Zealand Public Media (ANZPM), that call had “more than a whiff of passive-aggression”. Late last week, submissions on the Aotearoa New Zealand Public Media bill were made public. Greive describes the tone of the submissions and their publication as setting the scene for “the worst day yet for the merger”.
“Need to go back to the Muldoon government to find a similar power”
As a complete tragic, I had a read through of some of the submissions over the weekend. BusinessDesk’s Daniel Dunkley summarises (paywalled) the ones from TVNZ and RNZ media well. Both raised concerns about editorial independence but diverged on the form the entity should take. TVNZ questioned why ministers would need further powers of direction over ANZPM as laid out in the bill, writing: “Our research suggests that in the New Zealand context, members of the select committee would need to go back to the Muldoon government to find a similar power.” Commercial media concerns are well summarised here and centre around the ability of ANZPM to outcompete commercial media on talent, content and advertising revenue. The Herald’s Damien Venuto (paywalled) situates the debate among some facts about the success of mergers.
The key stakeholder in all this is the audience
By way of a counterpoint, Better Public Media chair Myles Thomas labels the concerns raised by media in the submissions as scaremongering. He picks up the news that the government will redirect nearly $85m from NZ On Air to the new public media entity. He makes the point that without a platform willing to broadcast certain types of programming, that programming doesn’t get made. The move to shift commissioning funding to the entity, a ready-made platform, makes sense, he writes. Thomas concludes by saying “the key stakeholder in all this is the audience – not advertisers, not the industry, certainly not politicians and not journalists.”
Where is the audience?
In my days of column writing, I once riffed off a comment from Glen Scanlon, who is now working on the creation of ANZPM at RNZ, where he noted that the audience voice is so often missing from media commentary. From a random sample of submissions, here is what some of them think. Alastair would like less reality TV on TVNZ. Elaine is worried about Concert FM. Nicolla is a fan of Māori language content aimed at kids. There were also a lot of synchronised submissions on media independence, some of which vibe with what media see on their Facebook pages. Meanwhile, a recent US survey found 54% of 13 to 38-year-olds want to become social media influencers. Quelle horreur but that generation presents one of the biggest challenges to media today and weren’t super prominent in the submissions. They don't just want to passively consume media, but create it. When talking about that audience, concerns about competition within existing New Zealand media may eventually pale by comparison.
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Government considering lifting number of RSE workers
The government is currently considering whether to lift the number of RSE workers able to come from the islands to New Zealand from 16,000 to 19,000. Green MP Teanau Tuiono says that any increase to the RSE numbers should be stopped while a planned review of the system was brought forward. That review is meant to be taking place next year. This morning, Stuff’s Kirsty Johnston has details of the conditions RSE workers were living in Rotorua. They were deemed 'unacceptable' by the Labour inspectorate and in breach of immigration rules.
New Zealanders join protest action after Mahsa Amini’s death
I found out about the protests in Iran on TikTok, where I was served videos of women cutting their hair following the death of a Mahsa Amini in police custody in Tehran. Amini was detained by the country’s morality police for having some hair visible under her hijab and died three days after her arrest. More than 100 people gathered in Wellington on Saturday to protest, including Green MP Golriz Ghahraman and writer Behrouz Boochani. Iran has summoned the British and Norwegian ambassadors over what it called interference and hostile media coverage of the nationwide protests. At least 41 people have died in Iran in protests across the country that are now rolling into their 11th day.
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What happened to free childcare?
Superb piece of work from Michelle Duff over the weekend looking at the promise of free childcare. It’s the first of a series investigating childcare in New Zealand. Duff writes that the policy that promised free early childhood education for kids aged three to five has faded so much that parents are routinely paying $65 a day. Fees paid by parents have risen by 50% since the policy was introduced and essentially subsidies just don’t cut it anymore. I don’t have kids so I was living in ignorant bliss on this one but some of the stories she tells really highlight how having two working parents and trying to afford childcare can be close to a zero sum game for some people.
Click and collect
Police falsely reported cars as stolen to access databases when looking for women whose travel sparked the Northland lockdown.
One in ten property managers ask for more information than necessary.
Italy on track to have first far-right-led government since World War II.
A summer of roadworks ahead as Waka Kotahi kicks off its largest ever road maintenance programme
Air NZ CEO defends problematic start to New York route. Can't help but double bill this with this about the godwits who are beginning their flight from the US to New Zealand.
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Why can’t we score?
Dylan Cleaver hands the mic to Bruce Holloway over on The Bounce to discuss the All Whites. They lost to the Socceroos on Sunday at Eden Park. Cleaver has written before about how he believes the All Whites are held to different standards than other professional New Zealand sides and wanted to check himself. Holloway writes that “after five games and 564 minutes since New Zealand scored from open play against a team from outside of Oceania, it’s fair enough to ask, ‘Why can’t we score?’”
“If we bring it down, the entire system will collapse”
The feature today relates to the situation in Iran and is from the New Yorker. It’s a profile of Masih Alinejad, an Iranian journalist who was driven into exile 13 years ago. Alinejad has been encouraging women in Iran to film themselves removing their hijab and to send her the recording since 2014. She’s become one of the most powerful voices for women in Iran and she’s doing it all from an FBI safe house in New York using social media.
