New Zealand’s public broadcaster, Radio New Zealand – commonly known as RNZ broadcasts over three nationwide networks; RNZ National, RNZ Concert and the AM network which relays Parliamentary proceedings.
RNZ Pacific (formerly Radio New Zealand International or RNZI) is its overseas shortwave service, broadcasting to the South Pacific and beyond, while Radio New Zealand News provides comprehensive, up-to-the-minute news and current affairs information.
Its CEO and Editor-in-Chief, Paul Thomson, who is also the President of the Public Media Alliance, recently spoke about the organisation’s vulnerability to politicians while making comparisons with the BBC.
He says this has often amounted to benign neglect, years of frozen funding, and a deficit of well-informed, credible public media policy.
While the country’s current coalition government continues to wrestle with how best to make a lasting and effective investment in a strengthened public media since the last two years, he remains hopeful but is not holding his breath, as concrete plans have yet to emerge.
“Public broadcasters such as the BBC and RNZ, and everything in between, have played a major role in shaping democratic societies for nearly a century. They were pioneers of both radio and television, created new media markets and spawned talent. They have connected and informed our democracies, celebrated unique national languages and cultures, and provided a lifeline of information in times of strife, war and disaster. But the linear, mass media world in which public broadcasting was born and thrived for decades no longer exists,” he said in an article.
“There is no doubt that public broadcasters need to make significant change if we are to weather this storm of political indifference, loss of trust, technological upheaval and shifting audience behaviour.”
He says: “The overriding goal is for public broadcasting to be as relevant to current and future audiences as we have been in the past. This will require as much boldness and ingenuity as we can muster. Ultimately, our continued value to diverse audiences who trust us implicitly is the strongest platform upon which to build the future.”
Read his complete article on Public Media Alliance here.