The New Zealand media sector has been in turmoil during the past week.
Warner Bros Discovery is consulting with workers about the total shutdown of its media wing Newshub. You would think that leaving such a big hole in the country’s media infrastructure would require the Minister to at least front up and publicly address the issue but she has been strangely silent.
And she had plenty of warning. From Guyon Espiner at Radio New Zealand:
Officials warned the government it may face requests to bailout media companies if it failed to progress a law forcing digital platforms to pay local media for using their content.
The warning, from officials at the Ministry for Culture and Heritage, came in November last year, months before Newshub collapsed.
The advice to Media and Communications Minister Melissa Lee said any further delay to a law change forcing Google and Facebook to pay local media companies for using their news content could lead to job losses.
“The industry considers the [Fair Digital News Bargaining] bill is the best mechanism to support a free and independent news media that is not reliant on government funding,” officials told Lee.
“The government may come under pressure from news media entities to consider other more interventionist and costly options for supporting the news media industry, such as bailouts.”
The briefings obtained by RNZ made it clear Lee was on notice about media job losses, months before Warner Bros Discovery said last week it would close down Newshub in June with the loss of about 300 jobs.
It will be at least May before the bill progresses any further, however, as Lee told RNZ she would wait for a report from the select committee considering it before going any further.
The second piece of news in the past week was TVNZ reporting a $16.7 million loss put down to a declining local advertisement market.
David Seymour responded to this news by suggesting that TVNZ should pay more in dividends. In particular he said:
“I think there’s a question mark around whether the government’s ownership of one TV channel and the poor returns it’s demanded as a shareholder has actually contributed to an uncompetitive market,” he said.
“It may well mean that they have to make a return on equity just like every other business in New Zealand is required to do … for a long time people have raised the simple question: how is it possible that New Zealand has very very cheap television advertising and a major player owned by government that doesn’t return a dividend as other companies are expected to do.”
TVNZ could return greater profits, by doing what Warner Bros Discovery is doing and partially or closing down the news side of its business. Wall to wall game shows, dramas about people renovating houses and series about celebrities living on desert islands could increase. The profit motive can produce rather unusual results.
But meanwhile an informed electorate, an absolute core necessity of a properly functioning democracy, could be severely impacted.
The Minister has nor ruled out one possible solution, passing Labour’s Fair Digital News Bargaining bill.
But she is content to wait until May when it is due to be reported back. The urgency of the current situation has clearly passed her by.
And the idea seems to be such a no brainer. Australia has created a similar scheme. And the US, UK, Canada, Australia, the EU and France are also in the process of introducing similar measures. But Lee’s reluctance to advance the proposal quickly is startling.
It is almost as if the Government does not care about the health of local media. And when you see that its supporters think that Newshub is a left wing outlet, although not as left wing as the Herald, you really have to wonder about their thought processes.
And while we are on the subject of undue pressure on the media how about this doozie from David Seymour?
Putting pressure on Journalists to tow the party line when reporting and not refer to left wing positions or discussion points ought to a sackable offence. It is disturbing that Seymour should be so blatant and so impervious.
This is a complex difficult issue. But without a properly functioning fourth estate things could get really chaotic really fast.
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