For Immediate Release

US Presidential debates on free-to-air TV in NZ

New Zealanders keen to see how the United States Presidential candidates square off are able to catch them on free-to-air television.

Triangle Television, New Zealand’s 10-year-old community network, is screening the series of presidential debates at 10pm.

The second is this Friday, October 3, when the Vice-Presidential candidates Democrat Joe Biden and Republican Sarah Palin go head-to-head.

The Democrat’s Barack Obama and Republican’s John McCain Presidential candidates will face-off on Wednesday, October 8 and again on Thursday, October 16. Wellington Triangle viewers will have to tune in at 9.30pm for the second debate.

Triangle Auckland is on UHF Channels 41, 42 and 52 and in the Wellington area UHF Channels 40 and 41. Triangle Television is now also available to Christchurch viewers via TelstraClear cable (Channel 50).

The debates will also be available on Triangle’s sister channel Stratos Television, which broadcasts nationwide via Sky Digital (Channel 89) and Freeview (Channel 21), at 10.30pm on the same days.

Triangle and Stratos’ chief executive Jim Blackman says providing coverage later in the evenings allows many New Zealanders to watch the debate that they otherwise have missed in the daytime coverage planned elsewhere.

The presidential debate will span two weeks and will provide people worldwide with insight into policies and ideas that the politicians have to shape the United States’ future.

ENDS

© Scoop Media

Gordon Campbell: On Failures Of Care For Those With Mental Disabilities

Hard to imagine a more disturbing insight into the treatment of the vulnerable than the Health Ministry report on Te Roopu Taurima o Manukau. The Ministry has found that the country’s only kaupapa Maori intellectual disability residential care provider has been “seriously dysfunctional.”

The ministry says the business has failed to recruit and retain quality staff – and says the kaimahi (caregivers) that have been employed are seriously unsuitable for the job, lacking basic knowledge. But Te Roopu Taurima o Manukau doesn’t get all the blame. The report says there’s a significant gap under disability laws to ensure there’s oversight by qualified clinical professionals. More>>