Public broadcasting options include shotgun marriage

A Government options paper on public service broadcasting is considering major and worrying changes, including a shotgun marriage between Radio New Zealand and TVNZ’s non-commercial channels, says Labour’s broadcasting spokesman Brendon Burns.

Brendon Burns says the review, led by the Ministry of Culture and Heritage and Treasury, is canvassing a range of options understood to include merging RNZ news services into TVNZ's, through to integrating TVNZ’s non-commercial channels 6 and 7 with RNZ’s operations.

“The review carries huge risks, particularly to Radio New Zealand. Broadcasting Minister Jonathan Coleman has also softened up Kiwis for potentially radical change in television by axing the TVNZ charter and requiring TVNZ to focus only on dividends.

"Meantime, Bill English says there will be no renewal next year of the $79 million of funding TVNZ has had over five years to establish and run the commercial-free Channels 6 and 7 on the Freeview digital platform," Brendon Burns said.

"Public reaction to Dr Coleman’s freezing of RNZ funding, and to his pressure on the RNZ board to consider commercial sponsorship, has shown him New Zealanders still value public broadcasting, so now he’s looking at a shotgun marriage between RNZ and the bits of TVNZ that don’t make money."

Brendon Burns says the review must ensure that there is no risk of more ‘slash and burn’ that cuts the jobs of more broadcasters and journalists, and cripples RNZ as our only non-commercial public broadcaster. "Dr Coleman has cabinet colleagues with backgrounds in commercial radio who see little value in public broadcasting and its role in providing a national voice. They want to sell TVNZ and gut RNZ.

"RNZ does an outstanding job at very modest cost. We don’t need RNZ journalists with cameras over their shoulders submerged in a new, cash-strapped ‘radio with pictures’ organisation. If it is flung together, without consensus, it will have a short and unhappy life. The RNZ ethos must be guaranteed.

"New public service broadcasting arrangements also require an enduring link to TVNZ for base news material and its archives. If the funding options include plundering New Zealand on Air, that will reduce local content on TV One and Two, TV3 and Prime, and make pay television ever more compelling.”

Brendon Burns says Kiwis have every reason to be apprehensive as the Government has shown it does not have a high regard for non-commercial broadcasting. “These changes need wide-ranging debate, not just a cabinet tick-off. The Government must show from the start that it's prepared to listen."

ENDS

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