New Zealand to merge public radio and television to form a large state-owned enterprise | Community

The New Zealand government on Thursday announced plans with Radio New Zealand and the TVNZ television network to create a single media system by mid-2023 to respond to changes in audience and consumer habits around the world. Age.

“The new public media company will be built on the basis of RNZ (Radio New Zealand) and TVNZ, which will initially be subsidiaries of the new organization,” New Zealand Minister of Media and Broadcasting Kris Faafoi said in a statement.

Faafoi stressed that in order to protect the relevance of the state media, they must provide “high quality, independent, timely and relevant” content in difficult environments such as the Govt-19 epidemic, as well as covering the views of all social actors. Maori minorities in their country.

The new body, which will have an independent panel responsible for its formation next month, will be funded with government funding and publicity, as well as maintaining editorial freedom in its decisions, according to the minister’s statement, which is not described. Cuts in actionable jobs.

Fully publicly funded RNZ and TVNZ derive 90 percent of their revenue from advertising, competing with various private media companies, some of which are part of powerful affiliates such as NZME or Stuff.

Upon learning of the announcement, Stuff CEO Sinead Boucher said his company wanted to ensure that “government intervention in the market does not undermine the business credibility of its newsrooms and operations in every region across the country.” Directs.

The NGO Reporters Without Borders (RSF), which ranks New Zealand eighth in the list of countries that respect press freedom, condemned four years ago that the diversity and freedom of journalists in the maritime country is largely affected by the logic of the private media. Seeks to reduce costs.

The RSF also recalled the Trade Commission’s opposition in 2017 to the merger of NZME and Stuff (formerly Fairfax), part of the New Zealand Herald newspaper.