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Summarised by Centrist
Former Metro magazine and North & South publisher Bruce Cotterill argues that TVNZ’s 1News bulletin has drifted away from the standards expected of a national broadcaster, saying it is no longer consistently “accurate, balanced and impartial” and has “lost its way”.
Cotterill’s main concern is what he sees as politically uneven treatment. He points to a 1News item about gangs that, he says, discussed “crime trends without acknowledging the government announcement of that same day that crime levels and victim numbers had dropped significantly under the current government”. He says the omission “made TVNZ look bad” and helped prompt a conversation between shareholding minister Paul Goldsmith and TVNZ chair Andrew Barclay.
He is even more critical of TVNZ’s treatment of Prime Minister Christopher Luxon after a poor Curia poll. Cotterill says a reporter approached Luxon at Wellington airport with questions he describes as “rude and disrespectful to the highest office in the land” and says the reporter’s “enthusiasm for the poll result was difficult to hide”.
By contrast, Cotterill says TVNZ gave much softer treatment to Labour leader Chris Hipkins over the Royal Commission’s COVID findings. Cotterill says there was “one patsy question” and argues that, even after Winston Peters later challenged Hipkins in Parliament, Wednesday’s 1News “made no mention of Peters’ parliamentary exchange” while still running “a lengthy item about Hipkins’ shadow cabinet reshuffle”.
Cotterill also takes aim at TVNZ chief executive Jodi O’Donnell, who said, “There is no bias in our newsroom, to be clear”.
“I think she needs to watch the news,” he responded.
He warns that if it cannot provide “editorial neutrality, objectivity and true independence”, then “we should sell TVNZ to someone who knows what those things mean”.
Read more over at the NZ Herald (paywalled)
