There is a fascinating spat going on in Christchurch between the Earthquake Commission and The Press. The EQC briefed its staff in an effort to try to control comments to the media and warn them about The Press' coverage, and reporter Ben Heather in particular.
You can read the Press' version of it in EQC bosses point finger at Press and download the original internal EQC presentation PDF here. As some commenters on the Press website have noted, the reporters will probably see the attack as a backhanded compliment rather than something to worry about. Interestingly, the EQC was far more favourable about other media that were more sympathetic in their coverage, particularly TVNZ's Close Up.
The controversy over NZ On Air political interference is timely, given plans to overhaul the regulation of media to try and cope with the massive growth of the internet as a news source. Andrew Geddis has a comprehensive post in which he speculates that the reason NZOA might have reacted the way it did was self-interested concern that its own budget might be cut by a vengeful National Government, unimpressed by its funding of an 'unhelpful' documentary prior to the election. In a lengthy post, Geddis points out the difficulty of deciding which publicly funded programmes are politically sensitive and shouldn't be screened during an election campaign - see: Because politics is the LAST thing you need to see at election time!. Similarly TV3's James Murray puts forward his view in NZ On Air - don't avoid the issue.
Today's Dominion Post editorial argues that controversial political content should be made and screened during election campaigns. The editorial makes an important point about the overhaul of media regulation - specifically that any system that relies on government oversight and funding is inherently susceptible to political interference - see: Slings and arrows of a single regulator.
The Herald editorial asks whether the documentary should have been funded and screened at all if it was politically partisan - see: NZ On Air shoots itself in the foot. Such criteria would probably ensure that most of the great documentaries of the past 20 years could never have been publicly funded. Rightwing libertarian blogger Not PC has a simple solution for those not wanting political interference: 'take their funding out of the political trough'. He's obviously not a fan of public broadcasting - see: He who has the gold makes the rules.
