19 September 2001

The appointment of Mr Derek Fox to chair the board of the Maori television service is a cynical manoeuvre designed to remove the prospective founder of a new Maori political party from the scene, National's Murray McCully said today.

The fact that the Minister of Maori Affairs has participated in the appointment process is highly questionable given that Mr Fox almost defeated him in the Ikaroa Rawhiti seat last election, and would very likely have defeated him in next year's election if, as was widely expected, Mr Fox had run again.

Confirmation that the Prime Minister met Mr Fox on August 7 to discuss Maori broadcasting matters will leave New Zealanders drawing their own conclusions about her and her Government's actions.

Ends

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Gordon Campbell: On the Sony cyber attack

Given the layers of meta-irony involved, the saga of the Sony cyber attack seemed at the outset more like a snarky European art film than a popcorn entry at the multiplex.

Yet now with (a) President Barack Obama weighing in on the side of artistic freedom and calling for the US to make a ‘proportionate response’quickly followed by (b) North Korea’s entire Internet service going down, and with both these events being followed by (c) Sony deciding to backtrack and release The Interview film that had made it a target for the dastardly North Koreans in the first place, then ay caramba…the whole world will now be watching how this affair pans out. More>>