The Latest Breaking News from NZ on Air

The recent internal report on RNZ’s performance, variously described as “scathing” and “blunt” in news coverage, caused considerable debate about the state broadcaster’s performance and priorities – not all of it fair or well informed.

Was the recent Velvet Sundown phenomenon a great music and media hoax, a sign of things to come, or just another example of what’s already happening ?

Axing the proposed merger of TVNZ and RNZ saved the Government a significant amount of money but left it with the problems the merger was supposed to fix. Mark Jennings looks at Labour’s new slimmed down approach to public media.

The state broadcaster is due to launch a dedicated Asia unit amid concerns about foreign interference in Chinese-language media.

The government’s decision to abandon the Aotearoa New Zealand Public Media (ANZPM) Bill came as no surprise after months of increasingly negative speculation. Officially, it stems from the prioritisation of “bread and butter issues” during a cost-of-living crisis, but it’s hard not to see this as a significant policy failure…

Broadcasting Minister Willie Jackson’s announcement of planned legislation requiring big online platforms such as Google and Meta/Facebook to “pay a fair price” to New Zealand news media for their content was welcomed by many as much-needed support for local journalism.

The 980 submissions in response to the Aotearoa New Zealand Public Media Bill are a testament to the importance – and contentiousness – of public media policy.

Peter Thompson examines some legitimate funding concerns around the new public media merger to see if the sky is really falling.