The Backstory: Why government money doesn't corrupt our journalism

Friday, 18 June 2021

The Backstory is an occasional column from Stuff Editor in Chief Patrick Crewdson offering behind-the-scenes insight into stories and newsroom decisions. You can get The Backstory as an email newsletter.

It was a powerful piece of investigative journalism that embarrassed the government and forced urgent action – and it was funded by government money.

If you want an example of the independence of Stuff’s journalism, you’ll find it in Stuff Circuit’s documentary Life + Limb, which revealed 17 casualties connected to New Zealand firing ranges in Afghanistan.

Like all Circuit’s celebrated and award-winning documentaries, it was made with NZ on Air funding. That’s relevant now because the announcement of the $55 million Public Interest Journalism Fund has provoked questions about whether state funding could make Stuff – and other media outlets – beholden to the government.

Here’s the short answer: absolutely not. Our journalism will remain free from political or commercial influences, as our company charter enshrines. Stuff’s sources of revenue do not affect the impartiality or objectivity of our journalism, the investigations we undertake, or how we scrutinise the powerful.

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**

The longer explanation involves understanding how Stuff makes money, how NZ on Air works, and why journalists will always question authority.

As a company, we are funded by advertising, newspaper and magazine retail sales and subscriptions, contributions to Stuff’s supporter programme, and grants from agencies such as NZ on Air. (Learn more about Stuff’s ownership and funding here.)

But we maintain a “church and state” divide, meaning the newsroom operates independently.

As our company charter says:

“We will fiercely protect our editorial independence from commercial interests, including our own, and any political influence. Our journalists will:

• Report without fear, bias or favour;

• Uncover the misuse of power and hold the powerful to account;

• Pursue and report on the truth no matter how challenging the truth may be; and

• Serve the public by safeguarding the democratic right of public interest in Aotearoa.”

We run stories that are unfavourable to advertisers, and we freely criticise the government. It wouldn’t even enter a journalist’s head to pull their punches to protect a funder.

The digital revolution has challenged traditional media business models – and Covid-19 intensified that challenge. The Government acknowledges a thriving media is crucial to a healthy democracy, and says it wants to prevent valuable journalism withering because it’s not commercially viable.

So, the Government allocated $55m over three years to support “public interest journalism that will otherwise be at risk or lost” while the media industry tries to develop more sustainable long-term models.

But it’s not Broadcasting Minister Kris Faafoi doling out the cash. The fund is administered by NZ on Air, the state’s independent media-funding agency. NZ on Air acts at arm’s length from the government of the day, and doesn’t vet proposals based on whether they’re palatable to politicians.

The fund incorporates a commitment to te Tiriti o Waitangi, which isn’t an issue for Stuff. Our charter already commits “to embed the Treaty of Waitangi principles of partnership, participation and protection in the ethics and practice of our business”.

Stuff has been accessing NZ on Air funding for years – as most media organisations do on a regular basis. On top of Stuff Circuit’s investigations, we’ve had NZ on Air funding for podcasts such as Once a Panther and Collapse, and for video projects including Munted and Night Shift. Production companies can also seek funding for projects that will air on Stuff, such as Kea Kids News, made by Luke Nola & Friends.

In simple terms, the process goes like this:

1. We hatch an idea for a journalism project, and submit a proposal in one of NZ on Air’s regular funding rounds.

2. NZ on Air approves or declines it, based on whether it meets funding criteria and its calibre compared to other pitches in that round.

3. If NZ on Air funds it, we use that money to help make it but – importantly – NZ on Air has no creative input or control. The only people who see the content before it’s published are our journalists and editors.

4. We’re transparent about disclosing when content has been supported by NZ on Air.

The Public Interest Journalism Fund operates in much the same way – except funding is available for a wider range of storytelling formats, not just video and audio, and the spending specifically targets missing or at-risk journalism of public interest.

This funding hasn’t been awarded yet, but you can search details of previous NZ on Air decisions on its website and, if you want to delve deeper, as a government agency it is subject to the Official Information Act. Stuff is far from the biggest recipient; a recent review of NZ on Air’s media fund found Stuff received 1.9 per cent of the money paid out between 2017 and 2019, compared with 55.7 per cent for TVNZ and 21.6 per cent for MediaWorks​.

Finally, consider this: editorial integrity isn’t just a principled stance; it’s what our business depends on.

Stuff makes money because we have an audience. That audience pays us directly, and advertisers pay us because they want to reach that audience. When funding agencies support us to make content, they do so because we can reach an audience with that content.

That house of cards all rests on our audience trusting us. If our audience decided we were beholden to political or commercial interests, they’d conclude they couldn’t trust our work any more. And the whole house of cards would collapse.

We’re sometimes accused of being either toadies or foes for the government of the day. In truth, we’re not politically partisan. Media outlets overseas – notably in the UK – will endorse or align themselves with particular political parties. We don’t. New Zealand is too small for a mass-market product such as Stuff or any of our newspapers to support a political party and still attract a general audience.

This new funding doesn’t buy journalists, any more than superannuation payments stop pensioners criticising Jacinda Ardern, or the wage subsidy scheme turned big corporates into Labour supporters.

The idea of being captured by the government gives us an allergic reaction. Holding the powerful to account is now, and will remain, a core job of journalists.

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