Would You Trust a Government-Funded Journalist?

Louis Houlbrooke
New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union

NZ on Air has announced grants for 110 new taxpayer-funded journalists.

For example, The Spinoff gets $427,800 of taxpayer money for two new journalists for two years. Stuff gets an incredible 20 new journalists, costing taxpayers $2.8 million!

At what point does the “Public Interest Journalism” fund begin to undermine the media’s independence? Will articles written by these journalists include disclaimer statements?

If you’re worried about the independence of our media, I strongly recommend you read this eye-opening piece by Graham Adams.

Mr Adams is a highly experienced journalist, and he released this article free for syndication – but no media outlets apart from The BFD were interested in publishing it! I wonder why…