Claudette Hauiti: The Willie Jackson interview was not a train wreck - but it did go off the media tracks

OPINION

I have been watching with great amusement the Pākehā media furore over “that” interview between journalist Jack Tame and Broadcasting Minister Willie Jackson on TVNZ’s Q&A programme. The kaupapa was the Aotearoa New Zealand Public Entity.

The interview was described by the Herald’s Thomas Coughlan as a train wreck, bizarre and worrying. I found it to be none of these things. In fact I had to rewatch it several times to see if I had the right show.

Full disclosure here; I was the executive producer of Eye to Eye with Willie Jackson, which once upon a time screened on TVNZ.

I’m also the parliamentary reporter for Radio Waatea, an entity of Manukau Urban Māori Authority, of which Willie Jackson was CEO.

So I can speak with some authority when it comes to interviews and answer avoidance, even ill-prepared talent - this Q&A interview wasn’t it.

When asked about the public’s “perception” of editorial interference by the Government, Minister Jackson said he understood that concern. But he also went on to say it was about supporting organisations and those media outlets representing communities.

Broadcasting Minister Willie Jackson. Photo / Mark Mitchell

That’s not question avoidance, that’s a slap in the face of big commercial entities that don’t give a toss about certain sectors of society like Māori, like Pasifika, like tāngata whaikaha because we’re deemed commercially unattractive.

This is an unpopular bill amongst a certain sector of the industry - no matter what the response is, it will never be acceptable, that is plainly clear from this interview.

When Jack Tame said, when it comes to an issue of trust, perception is just as important as reality.

The minister replied that sometimes perception is completely wrong - Jack Tame responded, “I’m not asking if it’s right or wrong.”

Really! Not after what’s right or wrong? Māori are so often at the blunt end of so many “misperceptions” because the media have failed to ask if the story is right or wrong, so when left “unasked” the misperceptions become fact.

According to AUT Journalism, Media and Democracy Research Centre NZ Media Ownership Report 2022, corporate media players and the largest independents perceive that this new media entity will distort commercial media markets.

But public media advocates among media professionals, politicians, lobbyists and researchers perceive the entity as a counterweight to commercial media dominance. The Q&A interview clearly supports this premise.

There was also a matter of public “trust”, if funding came from Government coffers.

Jack Tame. Photo / TVNZ

The public’s perception of trust that the new entity couldn’t remain independent. Surely, TVNZ has garnered enough trust over the years to last it through this transition?

Oh wait ... no, not amongst Māori. It ditched its Māori Programmes Department, it ditched its Pasifika Department, collapsed its charter and not so long ago folded Te Karere, a Māori language news service, under digital.

So, yes there is a matter of “trust” and credibility that the entity needs to build, but sadly I think TVNZ has run out of time.

So it’s now up to the governance board of Aotearoa New Zealand Public Media to build that much-vaunted’ “trust” - it’s got a head start with RNZ.

The governance board needs to shake off TVNZ’s commercial shackles and move it into the new era because we deserve our version of ABC or a BBC.

Māori deserve better coverage. We’re demanding a stop to the regurgitating of political dog-whistling and “mad”, “bad”, “sad”. We demand better from our public media.

My concern is around the makeup of the governance board and ensuring kaupapa Māori representation is consistent with Te Tiriti o Waitangi. It’s also about ensuring equity of pūtea funding to the Māori production sector. It is about perception and it is about trust because right now Māori have very little in commercial media entities and that includes TVNZ.

So was this a train wreck of an interview from the Minister of Broadcasting? No it wasn’t.

Commercial media need to get off the railway tracks and let us get on with the journey of telling our stories our way, truthfully.

Finally, is Willie Jackson a suitable choice to be minister for the new media entity? The answer is yes.

Claudette Hauiti is a former National Party politician and was an MP in 2013 and 2014. She is a Māori journalist for Radio Waatea 603 and a political commentator.