Taxpayers' Union says public media overhaul shouldn't be planned in private

Wednesday, 29 January 2020

Cabinet is understood to have agreed to advance RNZ/TVNZ merger plan, but with no 'irrevocable' decision.

Broadcasting Minister Kris Faafoi won't comment on an RNZ report that Cabinet has agreed to continue work on a proposal to fold RNZ and TVNZ into a new public media agency, a spokesman for the minister says.

The spokesman said Faafoi was not happy about where the information might have come from.

'He has his speculations … it is safe to say he is not happy.'

Barrie Saunders, chairman of the Taxpayers' Union lobby group, said the development was 'disgraceful'.

**READ MORE:

NZME has not yet provide a proposal to help unblock an NZME/Stuff merger that is detailed enough for Broadcasting Minister Kris Faafoi to consider.

* Cabinet agrees on RNZ, TVNZ public broadcasting decision

* Public media decision hangs in balance after Cabinet call for more detail

Media policy upshot may be a public television channel without advertising.

* Minister won't intervene with regulator over media merger, but deal could help

* Winston Peters throws in support behind Stuff/NZME buyout**

'Restructuring of public broadcasting should be a cross-party effort, also involving the wider public.

'Here we have RNZ reporting on its own future, without so much as the Cabinet paper being available. There is no urgency – the Government should issue a White Paper and take it from there.'

The Government put a long-awaited decision on the future of public media on hold before Christmas after NZ First leader Winston Peters indicated it needed more information about the plan.

RNZ reported that a 'high-level' but not irrevocable decision had now been made to proceed with the creation of a new public media agency, by 2023, with the next step being to develop a detailed business case.

The new agency would be allowed to receive some commercial funding, but it has previously been suggested that one upshot might be a funding model for state-owned television that was less reliant on advertising.

That was a key demand of television channel Three owner Mediaworks, before it signalled last year that it intended to sell its television business.

An industry source told Stuff a lot of work had already been done on the proposed public media merger, making it unlikely it would be lightly abandoned.

Faafoi had not yet been provided with enough information from NZX-listed media firm NZME to consider a separate plan it outlined last year to attempt to remove the regulatory obstacles to a merger of NZME and Stuff Ltd, his spokesman said.

Peters said in December that NZ First would support a 'Kiwi Share' proposal floated by NZME that would commit the company to maintain certain, unnamed mastheads and 'protect journalists' jobs' if an NZME takeover of Stuff was allowed – so long as Faafoi also backed that.

The proposal could make it easier for the Commerce Commission to authorise a merger, given that the regulator is not allowed to accept such 'behavioural undertakings' directly itself, but could potentially take into account any agreement that had been struck with the Government.

Faafoi said in December that the Government could look at a Kiwi Share proposal from NZME but made clear he wouldn't intervene to encourage or advise the commission to look again at the merger case.

But his spokesman said on Wednesday that he had still not received a plan at a sufficient level of detail for him to consider.