Media Release

28 February 2007

An Open Letter to Close Up

Dear Mark,

Last night you ended Close Up with a montage of me criticising media for inaccurate reporting.

I stand by those comments, particularly the sequence involving Kim Hill. But why did you not show the outcome of that particular argument? Was it because I was right to contest what she was saying, and Kim Hill finally had no choice but to admit she had misrepresented what I had said?

I'm sure the montage was intended to amuse your viewers, but what amuses me more is the advertisement that TVNZ runs for Close Up – the one where you talk about "the integrity of the people who work on the programme".

Well, if your show had any integrity, last night you would have run the conclusion of the Kim Hill interview, not just the bits that suited your montage.

Tonight why don't you try living up to the claim made in your advertisement and show what you edited out – the part that shows Kim Hill, like some of the media again this week, got it wrong.

ENDS

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