Tag: press freedom

Politicians target news media at our collective peril

All elections have targets. They include anyone or anything that might be perceived as a threat. I have a nasty feeling that in the 2026 New Zealand general election our news media will be one of those targets.

My premonition is driven by two factors. The first is the emboldening effect of the American president’s unremitting and debilitating war against journalists who do not kowtow. And the second is the growing belief that various forms of social media and AI-driven search engines have diminished the politician’s need for news media to reach constituents and they are therefore dispensable.

Attacks on the media by politicians are nothing new and they can be part of a healthy contesting of ideas and views. News media are – and rightly should be – as accountable as those they hold to account. However, when those attacks diminish or undermine the role of journalism itself, politicians and would-be politicians risk damage that extends well beyond their own self-serving aims. Continue reading “Politicians target news media at our collective peril” →

Trump Filter reveals NZ news media need more protection

I am tremendously grateful to the current president of the United States of America for adding even greater validity to the defensive mechanism I have named in his honour – The Trump Filter.

Before I go further, I should also thank Mr Trump for adding the word “tremendous’ to the lexicon of verified facts.

But to return to The Trump Filter.

It is a process I have developed against which I test the robustness of political decisions and, in particular, legislation produced by the New Zealand Government.

The filter applies a simple question: “Could this be misused or abused by a future government or leader, the nature of which we do not yet know?”

I don’t pretend the test is a novel one. It is really no more than an assessment of the ability of constitutional safeguards to do their job on behalf of the public. I do, however, suggest that the actions of Donald Trump provide us with excellent benchmarks against which to view the potential future misuse or trashing of things that this country takes for granted or, in some cases, holds dear.

There were warning signs in Trump’s first term, but his current term as president has created unprecedented assaults on institutions once thought fully protected by the US Constitution and the amendments embodied in the Bill of Rights.

Domestically and internationally, he has ridden roughshod over far more than the length of this commentary can accommodate. However, last week the impact of one of his more vengeful acts prompted me to apply The Trump Filter to the current state of a century-old institution in this country.

Let me address a specific question: “Does New Zealand’s public service media have sufficient safeguards to protect it against a future government or leader, the nature of which we do not yet know?” Continue reading “Trump Filter reveals NZ news media need more protection” →

Tar from Trump’s brush could splatter NZ media

Do not look upon incoming President Donald Trump’s widely anticipated assault on the American media with sympathetic detachment. Watch, instead, the way our own media systematically becomes spattered with tar from the same brush.

Attitudes are no longer formed solely from domestic influences. The Internet has not only broken down national information boundaries: It has removed the distinction altogether.

For those who receive most – or all – of their news through social media, the source has become either irrelevant or undefined. As a result, attitudes toward journalists and the institutions in which they work have become as transnational as the platforms from which the viewpoints are formed.

Yes, it’s early days but virtually all of the alarm over Trump’s well-signalled assault on press freedom is being directed at how he will make life very difficult for United States media. It has led to expressions of deep sympathy from abroad for American journalists and a collective exclamation: “Thank God we don’t live there’. Continue reading “Tar from Trump’s brush could splatter NZ media” →

What hazards lie ahead for America’s media?

Donald Trump’s decisive victory in the US presidential election led to a flurry of analysis and prediction today. Among the thought-provoking articles was this, published by the Columbia Journalism Review. Journalism under siege means democracy itself is under siege. You can read Kyle Paoletta’s article HERE.