Editorial: Broadcasting Standards
By John Terris, QSO
Saturday, 16 July 2016
Do you notice how our television broadcasters have become more and more a law unto themselves.
Roots
They don't seem to have any continuing interest in consulting their viewers. The screening of an adult programme like Roots on a Sunday evening at 8.30 pm is a case in point. There is prolonged and explicit sex and violence on this programme, quite unsuited to children and young people.
The rules which govern Broadcasting Standards are 30 years out of date and were conceived when we had a one-channel system and are no longer fit for purpose.
At the same time, there is no longer any opportunity for viewers collectively or as individuals, to engage in any meaningful way with the channels and the people who run them.
Kevin Kendrick, TVNZ CEO
Attempting to contact the CEO of TVNZ Kevin Kendrick the other day, to express concerns about the way the commercial content was being integrated with the programme material with no separation (you may have noticed that there is now no "Fade-to-Black" between the two) turned out to be a complete waste of time. I asked to be put through to his office, where I spoke with his assistant and asked her to have him phone me. I never heard back, so I left a voice mail message for her which also received no reply. So I rang the receptionist and asked for Mr Kendrick's email address and was told that they are not allowed to give it out to members of the public.
Here is the CEO of a state owned enterprise who refuses to engage with the people who pay his salary! If you approach the Minister Amy Adams, she will say that it would be improper for her to interfere in programme making decisions. So where is the accountability here, to you and I, the owners of State Television?????
TVNZ should be the standard bearer for transparency and accountability, not the leader of the race to the bottom.
BRIEFLY NOTED
John Campbell
CONGRATULATIONS to RNZ National's John Campbell of Checkpoint for running a news simulcast on Freeview Channel 50, which gives you all the day's news and opinion, with the latest pictures, and without the interruption of commercials, and an absence of lurid sensationalism, OR unnecessary hype, and all in a half hour at 5 pm weekdays.
WHAT'S THE POINT in having the weather forecaster in the middle of the six o'clock news giving a sort of forecast of the forecast. Why don't they give us a brief forecast as well as the day's weather conditions, and then the complete coverage before 7?
SOME OF the "Good sorts" which are the subject of Haydn Jones' little snippets are deserving of so much longer treatment. Some of his subjects are really interesting people but their interviews are really only "once over lightly". Why don't they give the guy a series of half hours of "The Best of Good Sorts"? Better than endless series of Britain's Got Talent. I think it's all gone to the EU anyway.
SOMEONE SHOULD GIVE A "SUPERMUM" AWARD to Jenny May Clarkson, new mother of twins, who also co-coaches one of the netball franchises. And she always has a big smile and something sensible to say on national television as well.
John Terris is National President for Media Matters in NZ, and is a former Deputy Speaker, NZ House of Representatives.
Tel: (04) 566 3175
