Programme Brief
Programme: Mediawatch
Scheduled: Sunday Mornings 9.06 am
Commences Sunday 10 June 2001
The Programme
A vital element of Sunday Morning will be Mediawatch, a critical, analytical and investigative examination of the role
of the media in New Zealand.
Electronic and print media play an important role in the development of public opinion. Presented by Russell Brown,
Mediawatch will examine the degree to which the media influences our values and how we see ourselves as New Zealanders.
Programme Presenter: Russell Brown
Russell Brown has had an extensive and varied career as a journalist and broadcaster, working for the Christchurch Star
and Rip It Up before moving to London in the mid eighties where he was a freelancer for several leading music magazines.
Returning to New Zealand he became editor of Planet magazine and wrote the Listener’s Rock column until 1994 when he
moved to a new Computers column. In 1996 he began work for IDG and has been news editor of the company’s online
presence, IDGNet.
He is well known to New Zealanders for Hard News, a robust commentary delivered on 95bFM every week. Russell has won six
QANTAS Media Awards for news, column and feature writing and two TUANZ reporting awards.
Editorial Advisers
Steven Price
Steven Price is a law lecturer and newspaper columnist with a special interest in media legal issues. He studied media
ethics as part of his law degree at Berkley and has been published in the American Journalism Review.
Gordon McLauchlan
Gordon McLauchlan has been a freelance writer and broadcaster for more than twenty years, working on several provincial
and metropolitan newspapers before managing a stable of magazines. He was a founding director of Radio Pacific and is a
columnist for the New Zealand Herald.
Tom Frewen
Tom Frewen is a newspaper and magazine columnist, a media commentator with a particular interest in the theory and
practice of public broadcasting. A journalist for almost 30 years, he has worked for newspapers, magazines, with
commercial radio and for the BBC.
Programme Producer: Lynn Freeman
Mediawatch producer, Lynn Freeman has spent 20 years working in radio and television. She worked as producer / presenter
of Southern Edition broadcast by Southern Television as part of the Horizon network and has produced both Kim Hill and
Morning Report for National Radio.
For Further Information Contact:
Russell Brown Email: russb@ihug.co.nz