Month: December 2023

Pall of disinformation over year of committed NZ journalism

I would like to concentrate on the positive achievements of New Zealand journalism in the past year, but I fear any optimism has been smothered by the single most effective disinformation campaign this country has seen in years. I refer to the slandering of the entire news industry.

I can point to countless examples of good, and sometimes courageous, journalism that were produced in 2023 but their light will be smothered by the pall created by those claiming New Zealand journalism is a profession not only open to bribery but which has been found guilty as charged.

The ‘smoking gun’ is said to be the $55 million Public Interest Journalism Fund.

That fund is no different to those that a number of countries have created to assist ailing news media. In the United Kingdom, the BBC administers the Local Democracy Reporting Service that pays for journalists in regional news organisations. It has been doing so since 2021. Since 2018 Canada has had five separate funds designed to support the news industry in that country and the Australian federal government also supports the Public Interest Journalism Initiative and a number of other support mechanisms.

However, on reflection, there is one difference: The New Zealand Public Interest Journalism Fund had a reference to recognising Te Tiriti o Waitangi.

I suspect that is the real genesis of the disinformation campaign that was started by faceless individuals, amplified by people who should know better, and finally given the ultimate ‘validation’ by a deputy prime minister intent on exacting utu for perceived (and largely imaginary) slights by the media. Continue reading “Pall of disinformation over year of committed NZ journalism” →

EU framework for AI laws: First steps to taming a beast

The European Union has agreed to pass the world’s first laws governing the use of artificial intelligence. It is one step on a long and winding road.

It is unsurprising that this initiative came out of the EU. It has been the only governing body to consistently put its people ahead of the wishes of the companies that control the search and social media platforms that intrude into virtually every nation on the planet.

The historic agreement came after 36 hours of solid negotiation among the EU member states and it sets out the parameters on which the laws will be based.

The move is hugely significant, but it should not be seen as a full solution to curbing negative impacts while allowing the positive aspects of AI to flourish.

It aims to ensure that AI systems used inside the EU are safe and respect fundamental rights. In other words, it is based on a harm principle. That means it will target high impact AI systems that pose potential risks and strictly limit the use of potential AI tools for state surveillance. Continue reading “EU framework for AI laws: First steps to taming a beast” →

Dear Sir, where have the letters gone?

There seems to be something wildly illogical about the New Zealand Herald’s decision to slash the space it devotes to letters to the editor.

Just when media are striving to find ways to engage with their audiences, the largest newspaper in the country devalues one of the few ways readers can engage with the print publication.

From November 20, the space given over to letters was reduced almost by half in the Monday-Friday editions, with the co-opted space given over to a pretty, but pretty forgettable, image labelled ‘Photo of the day’. What has not been lost in the change is the cross promotion for NewstalkZB’s Kerre Woodham. It remains a fixture on the page, taking up space that would have accommodated another letter.

The photograph is a cheap way of diminishing the call on the reduced resources now devoted to the print publication under NZME’s new ‘digital first’ strategy. The cost of a photo from the Herald’s existing Associated Press syndication deal is negligible compared with the extra time an editor would have to spend processing letters to fill the same space.

No doubt NZME has a carefully crafted piece of obfuscation to explain the change, but the fact remains that public discourse has been reduced by the move. Continue reading “Dear Sir, where have the letters gone?” →