Commenting on the announcement that Newshub is set to close, Taxpayers’ Union Policy and Public Affairs Manager, James Ross, said:

“Diversity of news is always important, but particularly so in New Zealand’s case given the way in which our public broadcasters are choking the country’s media landscape.

“Allowing TVNZ to suspend paying dividends is anti-competitive, screwing the scrum towards government-backed media to the detriment of the private sector. The implicit promise of Government bailouts also means it can make business decisions not available to other broadcasters. If this isn’t changed, the country is almost guaranteed to see more and more commercial newsrooms fail to stay afloat, eventually leading us in the direction of a state-run media monopoly.

“The Public Interest Journalism Fund has already fuelled a perception that Governments use taxpayer funding to push political agendas, and long-term the only way to avoid this is to get Government out of the news game entirely.”

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