Editorial: Reporting the news comes at a cost

Mark Dawson, editor of Wanganui Chronicle

Eighty-four dead ... in the context of the wars and conflicts around the globe, that's not a huge number.

Still, it's not without significance — it is the number of journalists killed in he past 12 months doing their job; reporting the news.

None in New Zealand, thank goodness — we may face abuse and the odd physical threat but no one is likely to shoot us for informing the public. Afghanistan, Mexico and Yemen were the most lethal spots.

One of the most high profile deaths was Maltese journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, a relentless critic of corruption in the country whose car was blown apart by an explosive device in October. This week her family started legal action against the police force for allegedly failing to ensure the investigation into her killing was independent.

Okay, it may seem self-serving to go into bat for one's own profession, but it is good to remind people that a free, impartial and ethical press comes at a cost. Financial, of course, but sometimes more than that.

In this era of fake news websites, the ill-informed opinions and chatter of Facebook, and vested interests seeking to undermine the democratic process, it is is important to value a mainstream media which, by and large, protects that process and which is answerable for what it publishes.

And I don't just say this because this week on Facebook someone suggested "bombing" the Chronicle, or because Facebook has recently had to acknowledge that as many as 270 million of its users are either duplicates or fake accounts, some of which may, or may not, have been part of a Russian plan to influence the United States presidential election.

In the coming weeks, the High Court will rule on the proposed merger between the Chronicle's parent company NZME and media business Fairfax.

While the notion of one dominant player emerging from two rival organisations has sparked fears of a monopoly, such a merger would create one business strong enough to sustain viable coverage by independent and objective journalists — preferable surely to having political spin doctors and corporate lobbyists delivering the news.

On a brighter note for the media this week, new Minister for Broadcasting Claire Curran made a strong commitment to investing in "public interest" media, saying she wanted to create something "long-term, hard to dismantle and truly independent of government interference".