Limited grasp of issues or dangers of a weak media

A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.

Opinion

I admit to some anger addressing those who made comment on  the editorial re media and democracy.

It annoys the hell out of me as a long-standing journalist trying to serve the public good that such people appear to have no real understanding of the issues involved, nor of the dangers threatened by a weak media.

This newspaper’s incessantly regular coterie of opinionaters seems to despise and denigrate a good number of people, including the media and its journalists.

However, bashing the media is as old as the Greeks and the habit of killing messengers bearing bad news.

Media must be free and able to represent views across a wide spectrum —they must be protected from influence, whether it be commercial, political or populist.

In a biography of Voltaire, Evelyn Beatrice Hall wrote: “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it” as an illustration of Voltaire’s beliefs in the principle of freedom of speech.

A healthy society encourages debate and differing views — but also seeks moderation and civility.

The half dozen writers who swamp the Letters to the Editor day after day, week after week, are abusing the very freedoms which journalists have long fought to preserve.

That these writers do not recognise this is ironic and laughably absurd.

Their dominance of Letters to the Editor and its online response facility is disproportionate and abhorrent.

For the past few years, The Gisborne Herald has given these few people a platform.

They have a field day through sheer volume and some might say they are ill-informed, irrational, downright batty, and often nasty in their disagreement with, and disapproval of others.

They seem to have virtual ownership of the Letters space.

It is long past time the paper exercised stronger moderation as the Letters to the Editor scene has become grossly unbalanced.

Roger Handford