Budget 2025 Cuts RNZ Funding To Pay For Local Journalism Initiatives

The Better Public Media Trust welcomes Minister for Media and Communications Paul Goldsmith’s recognition that funding local journalism is vital in a democratic society. But it is counter-productive to fund these initiatives at the expense of Radio New Zealand.

Although Budget 2025 allocates $6.4 million over four years to council, community and court reporting via NZ On Air, RNZ funding is being cut by $18.4 million over the same period.

“The way to address the crisis in the news sector is not to try and drive public service media into the same economic crisis as the rest of the commercial media sector,” said BPM spokesperson Dr Peter Thompson.

“The government could save itself considerably more money with a levy on digital advertising to support the provision of reliable, in-depth public interest news.”

“Funding the Local Democracy Reporting and Open Justice projects by taking money away from RNZ is robbing Peter to pay Paul,” he said.

“The government seems to think the funding increases for RNZ under the previous government were unduly generous but has forgotten that those increases were in response to almost a decade of frozen budgets that RNZ suffered under the preceding National government.”

BPM believes that public service media are an important component of New Zealand’s media. Ensuring we have independent news media that can hold those in power to account is vital when the news media sector is in crisis and public knowledge is being undermined by online disinformation.

A recent Trust in News in Aotearoa New Zealand report, produced by the AUT research centre for Journalism, Media and Democracy, shows that in 2025 RNZ was the most trusted news brand in New Zealand. Given that the government has set targets for RNZ to improve audience reach, trust and transparency, cutting its funding is surely counter-productive.

“The fundamental policy problem is that the news sector has lost a significant proportion of its advertising share - hundreds of millions of dollars - to the online platforms. Addressing this structural deficit needs much more than $6.4 million over four years,” said Dr Thompson.

“There are serious flaws in the Fair Digital News Bargaining Bill, which has stalled, but there is another inexpensive option which would make a real difference - a levy on commercial revenue streams could put a significant amount of revenue back into the news sector.”

A one percent levy on digital advertising alone would raise around $18-20 million each year, which could support projects like Local Democracy Reporting and Open Justice, while increasing RNZ’s budget.

BPM is reassured to see the government supporting public interest journalism with funding disbursed by NZ On Air, but this should be supported through a levy model, not by reallocating RNZ’s funding.

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