TVNZ, RNZ merger proposal to go to the Cabinet 'soon'

Wednesday, 16 February 2022

Crunch time finally approaching for controversial proposal to put broadcasters on a new footing.

A proposal to merge TVNZ and RNZ into a new public media entity will be considered “soon” by the Cabinet, the chief executive of the Culture and Heritage Ministry, Bernadette Cavanagh, has told a select committee.

A spokesman for Broadcasting Minister Kris Faafoi confirmed that.

Cavanagh said that, if approved, the new entity would “grow the skills and experience of both RNZ and TVNZ but with flexibility to meet the needs and expectations of modern New Zealand audiences”.

“The aim is to ensure future generations can access content that reflects diverse experiences, languages and communities,” she said.

Culture and Heritage Ministry chief executive Bernadette Cavanagh has brushed off suggestions it distanced itself from a report it commissioned because it aired doubts about a government policy.

* Second Public Interest Journalism funding round provides $18 million for 110 journalist roles

* NZ On Air dishes out $9.6 million to journalism

The business case for the proposed new public media entity was completed in September and had originally been expected to be considered by the Cabinet in October.

But Faafoi said in November that the discussion had been pushed back to early this year because of the Government’s need to deal with Covid-related issues at that time.

The level of support for the proposal remains unclear.

Lobby group Better Media Public has expressed concerns RNZ’s public media mandate might get diluted if the merger goes ahead, and has accused the Government of providing too little information about why it is being suggested.

TVNZ chief executive Kevin Kenrick, who is stepping down this month, told MPs last year that he felt it was valid to question whether a merger could increase public concerns about media bias.

But RNZ chairman Jim Mather has expressed strong support for the idea.

Appearing in front of Parliament’s Social Services and Community select committee, Cavanagh also faced claims from National Party broadcasting spokeswoman Melissa Lee that the ministry had “buried” criticisms of the Government’s $55 million public interest journalism fund.

The three-year fund, which is managed by NZ On Air, opened last year with the goal of ensuring the economic impacts of Covid did not erode public-interest journalism.

But a report commissioned by the Culture and Heritage Ministry and produced by Sapere into media plurality reported that media organisations it interviewed had mixed views on the merits of the initiative.

Many were supportive of the scheme, but some suggested it was of “marginal public benefit” and some were concerned that the funding might make media firms “beholden to the government of the day”, Sapere said.

“Several stakeholders expressed concern that funding decisions had crossed into editorial decision-making, with New Zealand On Air effectively holding a ‘beauty contest’ to choose which proposed stories/investigations merited support.”

Lee said the November report had been released “last Friday afternoon in the middle of nationwide focus on protests and terrible weather conditions”.

“I guess you sort of wonder if the report that was critical of the Government's intentions was trying to be buried,” she said.

Lee also said the ministry had then distanced itself from the report by removing an earlier statement from its website that it would “inform future work”.

Cavanagh said the wording had been changed “because there had been some suggestions that it was, I guess, a ministry report, rather than a report from an independent body”.

The public interest journalism fund was “only ever intended to be an interim fund,” Cavanagh also said.