In an interview with Newstalk ZB’s Kerre McIvor former minister Steven Joyce said politicians’ short-comings were being “weaponised” and those levelling accusations and exposing the actions needed to press pause. “Nobody is perfect, and there are aspects of everybody’s lives that they’re not proud of. I would just say to the people that bring these Read more
Whether it is in the Business Insider, the Guardian, the Washington Post, Deutsche Welle, Time magazine or the CBC media, New Zealand has been widely lauded as the COVID-19 “success story.” On 8 June, the island nation announced that its last person known to be infected with COVID-19 has recovered. This means that (at that Read more
Pope Francis offered a prayer for media professionals who are covering the coronavirus pandemic before his daily Mass on Wednesday. “Those who work in the media, who work to communicate today so that people are not so isolated … help us to bear this time of isolation,” Pope Francis said April 1. The pope asked Read more
No one will accuse Los Angeles reporter Sara Welch of not performing due diligence. The KLTA reporter became news after saying on live air that a man who was killed in a car crash could not be reached to tell his side of the story. Read more
Justice minister Andrew Little has announced details of the abortion bill to go before Parliament, and already it’s abundantly clear that we shouldn’t expect balanced media coverage. The tone was set in an opinion piece today in which Stuff political reporter Henry Cooke wrote that the government was finally moving after years of “shameful inaction”. Read more
Perceptions of Christianity in New Zealand get shaped by the most extreme voices. So who else could the media go to for comment? Quick, name the most prominent New Zealander you can think of who is a Christian. Chances are if you follow the news at all, that the first name that comes to mind Read more
The media’s not responsible for the damage the abuse scandal has caused the church. Church leadership is responsible for this, says German Cardinal Reinhard Marx. Speaking at a news conference, Marx said the Church needs “more open and clear dialogue, accountability and a willingness to see abuse survivors and critics who push for remedy and Read more
Lucetta Scaraffia, who edits the Vatican daily L’Osservatore Romano women’s supplement, has published an editorial defending the media’s role in unlocking the sexual abuse crisis in the Catholic Church. Scaraffia says the “implacable and pitiless” nature of the coverage is “born from disappointment.” In her view, in societies affected by the sexual revolution, this disappointment Read more
Last year the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) pulled the plug on its shortwave service to the Pacific region. Some of the ABC’s former shortwave frequencies are now being used by China Radio International, the country’s state-owned overseas broadcaster. Some have argued that, in the age of the internet, shortwave radio is no longer important. But Read more
It has been an excruciatingly painful day for Madam Secretary and her staff. A plot to negotiate the release of a kidnapped American aid worker fails, and the young woman — together with others who have been trafficked — is found dead from asphyxiation in the back of a truck in Kyrgyzstan. In the final Read more