Jonah from Tonga to air on Māori TV

Is Jonah From Tonga offensive?

A TV series that has been labelled an 'insult to Tongan culture' will be screened on Māori TV.

The Government's Minister for Pacific Peoples Alfred Ngaro says it isn't funny and "perpetuates negative stereotypes of Pacific people".

The show faced criticism when it screened in the US in 2014 for racism, including for using 'brown face'.

Almost 12,000 people signed a petition that called for TV network HBO to pull the show off the air.

Samoan writer Morgan Godfrey, who is based in Wellington, also criticised the show in The Guardian.

"I didn't think it was clever or smart to dress as a Tongan teenager literally with brown makeup on, faking an accent, faking a Tongan accent and using that as a critique of racism because it's actually a form of brown face," he told Radio New Zealand.

Māori TV head of content Mike Rehu told RNZ that the channel had consulted widely with the Tongan community before airing the show.

"We've got to understand that one or two people maybe upset by it, but that's the issue we have with comedy and in particular satire in New Zealand," he told Radio New Zealand.

The series starts on Radio New Zealand this week.