Katherine Rich National Broadcasting Spokesperson

16 October 2001

Minister smothers TVNZ with bureaucracy

"If the Broadcasting Minister's answer to a failing TVNZ is more committees, then it's quite clear she asked the wrong question," National's Broadcasting spokesperson Katherine Rich said today.

"Three boards means three times the bureaucracy imposed on an ailing company which is facing falling revenues and growing losses. The new structure will add nothing to the company and will be a bureaucratic nightmare.

"When the public broadcasting broth is rapidly spoiling, Marian Hobbs' answer is to make matters worse by appointing more cooks.

"TVNZ is struggling to implement the Charter with no new funding and today's announcement will further compound TVNZ's problems.

"None of these changes mean better programmes which is what most kiwis are interested in," Katherine Rich said.

Ends

© Scoop Media

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>>