Radio NZ ostensibly has egg on its face over the discovery that a pro-Russia, anti-Israel employee has tampered with news releases.
Frankly, RNZ has my sympathy. The changes were so subtle it’s amazing that they were picked up at all. The last thing needed is an extra employee to vet what is a straightforward task, that’s if they can find anyone to do such a tedious proofing job. Every employee in every activity is assumed to be doing their job to its prescription and 99% of the time they do.
The creation of an expensive three person panel headed by a purported media law expert Willy Akel with Linda Clark and an Australian from ABC News to “review RNZ’s editorial processes” is a totally unnecessary cost to the taxpayers.
This was a freak incident and should be treated as such and RNZ has no need to feel embarrassment.
3 Comments
Wholly agree. I suspect that Radio NZ was simply playing to its already left-of-centre audience. After all, every news report has someone’s slant on it. Adding in a layer of additional oversight just shifts the problem sideways-who now oversees the new overseers and so on and so on…
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
Well said I agree both Radio & Newspapers are out of control they do not print without fear of favour any more so I do not support any of them.
They certainly need additional oversight – if only to correct their spelling and grammar.