New Zealand Herald drops hard news
According to overseas-based Kiwi blogger Cactus Kate a memo circulated to staff at the New Zealand Herald and other APN titles telling journalists to adopt a “more conservative editorial approach”. The memo, apparently sent to staff from the company’s Sydney headquarters follows a decision to cut the company’s budget for legal action and defence to zero.
According to Cactus Kate, APN instructed editors to spike any stories that could trigger legal action or are otherwise risky.
The New Zealand Herald has never been considered the nation’s hardest newspaper, but Cactus Kate’s APN Chicken Out says the company is no longer participating in ‘real media’.
This creates an enormous news gap in the nation’s largest city – one that television and radio seem equally unable to fill. Bloggers alone can’t fill the void left when a major newspaper decides not to do its job properly.
Update: If you are a journalist or have other relevant skills and would like to take part in a project to develop an online alternative to the Herald please get in touch.
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16 Nov 09 at 8:24 am
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Michael Fleming (thatfleminggent) 's status on Sunday, 15-Nov-09 22:01:33 UTC - Identi.ca
16 Nov 09 at 10:01 am
The NZ Herald has already been pursuing an increasingly ideologically conservative editorial approach so I suppose explicit instructions to roll over and die at the mere threat of legal action should be enough to shut them down completely on anything that really matters.
Steve
16 Nov 09 at 10:14 am
I also see it as a threat to democracy
Bill Bennett
16 Nov 09 at 10:18 am
Isn’t it a bit ironic that our democracy is reliant on big multi-national corporations?
It might be a threat to our democracy in the short term, but longer term surely this is an opportunity to find a real democracy.
Fraser
16 Nov 09 at 11:26 am
While those of us in the blogosphere probably have a reasonable grasp of the world of big business and government, for many people a daily read of the paper and watching the 6 o’clock news is the sum total of their current affairs exposure.
The Herald seems to be taking a backward step more in line with the old NZBC, who published only sanitised news the political masters deemed suitable.
Bright Wings
16 Nov 09 at 11:47 am
@Fraser – I don’t think it would be an issue if there were hundreds of media channels operating – competition would ensure all the necessary voices were heard. Having just a a handful of multi-national corporations in control of our media is another thing entirely.
Bill Bennett
16 Nov 09 at 11:47 am
Thanks Bill
I note Mr Murphy has responded here on his website and apparently to my blog, however as I am not home I cannot check blogger. When I can I will reproduce Mr Murphy’s response.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/opinion/news/article.cf...
The issue is of course I have seen the email forwarded to contributors and others on staff headed “Suggested guidelines to limit defamation proceedings” and it states very clearly it was from Sydney HQ.
If “They are not publisher instructions or editor directives” then I wonder what they actually were?
Any “mish-mash” (that Mr Murphy calls it) created therefore was directly from Sydney’s own HQ. I have reproduced the content of the email in full on my blog post with my comments under each section.
There was not 66 pages of “media law training” on that email which was why I did not produce any more of it. I have not seen such a document.
As I cannot reproduce in Scribd the two emails I have been forwarded without revealing the identity of those staffers and the other one with a narrative of what has happened, then it is a case of the reader can make up their own minds.
Added to this the attachment to one of the emails I was sent was delightfully termed “prepublication vetting.doc”. I have now just been forwarded the same email that has made its way around a PR company. Clearly news travels fast in Auckland and Wellington.
Either 3 people (2 very senior journalist figures) have lied to me and fabricated the entire story. Or Tim Murphy is spinning like Whale oil says – faster than the Indian Cricket team.
Cactus Kate
16 Nov 09 at 5:13 pm