TVNZ Wants ‘Fair Go’ Journos To Be Barebacked If Needed By Advertisers.
dannews.co.nz
Jessica Christ TVNZ, can you become a bigger joke?
Television New Zealand journalists working on the Fair Go programme have been told not to produce stories which would upset their advertisers, Parliament has heard.
Labour’s broadcasting spokeswoman Clare Curren today questioned TVNZ bosses about a recent meeting called between management and Fair Go staff.
TVNZ management had instructed them not to “produce programmes that would upset their advertisers”, she claimed.
However, head of TV One and TV2 Jeff Latch said it “wasn’t an instruction, per se”.
“The key points I made at that meeting was that the heart of Fair Go for the past 20 odd years it has been on television, is that it represents the underdog and the small guy and stands up for them,” he told Parliament’s commerce select committee.
“I also made the observation we operate in a commercial environment and Fair Go, like all our programmes, need to exercise care in the way they handle stories.”
Journalists needed to make sure stories were always balanced with the views of both sides of the story, he said.
“A story that is not balanced could be something that is not really what we would want to run on that network.”
Latch said there was “nodding acceptance around the room that that made sense”.
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