Editorial: Extraordinary claim of mistrust from Broadcasting Minister

Broadcasting Minister Willie Jackson. Photo / Mark Mitchell

EDITORIAL

When Police Minister Chris Hipkins was confronted with irrefutable evidence that senior officers had lied in falsifying stolen vehicle reports in order to gain access to CCTV footage, he couched his response carefully to avoid any semblance of criticising his department.

Contrast this with the Broadcasting Minister Willie Jackson who, in Parliament this week, launched a remarkable tirade at his own people in Radio New Zealand and TVNZ.

"We have no longer a trust in national media - no longer is there a trust in what's happening at a national media level," he said. "We need a trusted public broadcaster because national identity is incredibly important and no longer do people trust New Zealand television or New Zealand radio."

The comments came after Jackson was repeatedly questioned over the proposal to fold TVNZ and RNZ into one entity. Jackson has been tasked with shepherding the Aotearoa New Zealand Public Media Bill to merge the two state media entities into one.

He was clearly rattled by the probing and this gives further pause for thought over whether the merger is warranted, or being well handled.

The bill is at select committee stage, and National has been pecking at the proposal, clearly convinced there's more to see than the Government has disclosed, or less work carried out than should have been. We are currently led to believe there has been no cost-benefit analysis and scant information about the impact of the merger.

After criticism, Jackson subsequently resiled from his trust comments by saying they were "but a reflection that the whole media landscape has changed, with audiences now more likely to be engaged with streaming services or social media than traditional media".

It is little better to suggest RNZ and TVNZ - his departments, remember - have misread their audiences to the degree that his all-knowing and guiding hand is necessary to put them right,

AUT research released this year found RNZ is New Zealand's most trusted news organisation, while TVNZ is the third.

Yes, overall trust in media has been declining in recent years but this has been driven in a large part by social platforms in an active strategy to lure audiences away from trustworthy and regulated media sites and onto their user-generated content.

The fact is, mainstream media has stepped up to the challenges of the online scramble for attention. Trust in news in general in New Zealand remains above the international average, as measured by a Reuters/University of Oxford annual review.

Jackson lashing out at his own charges in Parliament not only demeaned the hard work of the journalists in those networks but also went further and undermined the relationship between the New Zealand public and media.

We should expect better from a Broadcasting Minister.