5 July 2007

TVNZ fiddles while state broadcasting burns

TVNZ's invitation to the public to comment on how to rewrite the broadcasting charter is a welcome move, but a totally inadequate response to the challenges that state broadcasting now faces in the digital age," Green Party Broadcasting Spokesperson Sue Kedgley says.

"It is all very well to ask the public to help TVNZ to redraft the charter. Broadcasting Minister Steve Maharey should be telling the working party co-ordinating this exercise to consider some far more pressing concerns," Ms Kedgley says.

"At present, the public has no way of identifying a charter programme when it sees one. The charter also needs to contain measurable targets so that we can know if and whether and in what respects TVNZ is meeting its charter commitments. Without measurable targets, the charter is mere waffle.

"Good intentions alone will not save state broadcasting. We should be asking whether we need to co-ordinate the various agencies that fund and monitor broadcasting in this country into one agency - akin to Ofcom in Britain - and give it the clout to further the interests of viewers and listeners, foster competition, enhance the delivery of public service television and protect consumers from harmful and offensive material.

"The working party would also be better employed in examining the need for anti-siphoning legislation in this country, to protect free to air broadcasting from being locked out of the battle for content. Thanks to the ineptitude of a previous National government, TVNZ was allowed to sell its shares in Sky - and thanks to a subsequent Labour government, state broadcasting was left without an adequate digital strategy to compete with Sky for control of the digital gateway.

" In the digital age, other countries have decided that access to content may need to be regulated, and not left simply to the mercies of the market

"Given the challenges facing state broadcasting, debating the wording of a patently unworkable charter is a classic case of fiddling while Rome burns.

"The charter cannot be saved by altering its wording. The charter will remain part of the problem, so long as state broadcasting is still saddled with the simultaneous and contradictory demand to maximise its profits," Ms Kedgley says.

ENDS

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