Finally…someone gets tough on Facebook

TUESDAY COMMENTARY

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is rightly being praised for her handling of the Covid-19 pandemic but she needs to get over her Millennial attitude to social media and join Australia in making them pay their way.

Canberra has announced a tough mandatory code to make Facebook, Google and others pay for the news content that have been pillaging from news media’s digital platforms. New Zealand should do the same, preferably adopting the same code for a trans-Tasman approach to regulating companies that thought they were beyond the reach of mere governments. So far, our government has gone no further that saying ‘we’re looking at it’ but characterising it as ‘a longer-term measure’.

Australian Treasurer Josh Frydenberg wants a code developed by July and, if the tech giants do not negotiate payment rates in good faith, rates will be imposed. There will be heavy financial penalties for non-compliance. Expect the code to be in place before the end of the year. Continue reading “Finally…someone gets tough on Facebook” →

We need balance in media ecosystem

A companion article to the submission I made this week to Parliament’s Epidemic Response Select Committee has been posted on The Democracy Project website. In it I call for a balanced approach to the preservation  of the New Zealand media ecosystem. We need strong public AND private sector news organisations. Here is the link The Democracy Project

NZ media in existential crisis

The following is a submission I made today to the Parliamentary Epidemic Response Select Committee chaired by Simon Bridges. The committee sat for four hours hearing from media groups about the effect of the Covid-19 crisis. I said I could not over-emphasise the urgency of the issues facing our commercial media. One chief executive told me the industry needed to be “immediately put in emergency triage”. However, like all emergency care, that is only the beginning and I urged the adoption of a three-stage process to create a new, sustainable media ecosystem. Continue reading “NZ media in existential crisis” →

New guidelines on terrorism: I hope we will not need them

Last week the Broadcasting Standards Authority released guidance to broadcasters which, I sincerely hope, gathers digital dust in an unopened computer folder.

The world will be a better place if no New Zealand broadcaster has to ever access the file to ensure local coverage is in line with the detailed guidelines it contains.

The guidelines are not faulty. Nor is the BSA operating outside its remit. The reason  I hope they are never needed is because they cover acts of terrorism and violent extremism. Continue reading “New guidelines on terrorism: I hope we will not need them” →