MEDIAWATCH: The crucifixion of Māori Media is intentional

Māori Media Needs More Investment, Not Funding Cuts – Green Party

The Green Party is gravely concerned about a major cut to funding for flagship Māori news and current affairs programmes Te Karere and The Hui by Te Māngai Pāhō.

“This is a terrible outcome for Māori media, and sadly consistent with this Government’s continual undermining of our culture,” says the Green Party Spokesperson for Māori Development, Media and Communications, Hūhana Lyndon.

“The complete gutting of funding for The Hui is particularly galling, as it has been such an effective vehicle for telling stories that are uniquely Māori and which also hold those in power accountable.

“Our media ecosystem is struggling in an environment of budget tightening under a Government which can find billions of dollars in tax cuts for landlords and tobacco companies but nothing for Māori news and current affairs. It comes down to choices.

“Te Karere has been delivering a quality national Māori news service on mainstream media for four decades. So it’s essential that the Minister of Māori Development Tama Potaka step up and ensure this vital service is not lost.

“It is also an opportunity for TVNZ and other mainstream broadcasters to demonstrate what good te Tiriti partnership looks like.

“We must invest more in Māori media, and there’s an urgent need to look for new partnerships to ensure the likes of Te Karere and The Hui survive, as the Government is failing its responsibility to support, promote and protect Te Reo as a taonga.

“The Green Party would increase funding for a media network that is unapologetically Māori, enhancing regional collaboration and helping communities across the motu develop a sense of ownership in the programmes that inform and resonate with us,” says Hūhana Lyndon.

Hūhana Lyndon is right to criticise the enormous cut backs in Māori Media but it is more malicious than just a budget cut, the crucifixion of Māori Media is intentional.

This Government’s anti-Māori, anti-Treaty, anti-Worker, anti-Renter, anti-Beneficiary, anti-Disabled, anti-Environment agenda can only pass if the Fourth Estate doesn’t wake the sleepy hobbits of muddle Nu-Zilind.

The Government can rely on NZME to stick to the party line, they can rely in TVNZ being timid and RNZ/Stuff have too small a social media footprint to generate political backlash, but Māori media have been front and centre in challenging this Government’s terrible agenda.

THAT is the real reason they have been cut and the pathetic downgrading to a news hub run by the most timid Māori Network in NZ is to ensure Māori media is muzzled in the election year.

We should be disgusted but the blitzkrieg tactics of this Government have left many tired and exhausted so these types of naked abuses of power are barely remarked upon.

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