It seems that just as we are building a campaign to protect and support public radio in New Zealand, there are similar issues in the UK. Just as my colleague Brendon Burns has set up a website and e-petition a campaign has been launched in the UK to protect the BBC from cuts. There is also a Twitter campaign underway.
The proposals being considered include cutting some of the stations run by the BBC and, in a remarkably odd move, cutting its web presence. The BBC is a much bigger outfit than Radio NZ, but it is interesting to see that many Brits feel the same attachment as New Zealanders do to RNZ. Also similar is a belief among conservative sections that public radio is somehow biased against them, not that there is any evidence to back this up of course.
Wellington is definitely a city which values arts and culture and I have had a lot of feedback about the plans to make cuts at Radio NZ. This has come from across the political spectrum as well. Many New Zealanders are facing tough times at the moment, with increases in the cost of living, frozen wages and increased costs with ACC. Of course dealing with those issues must be the priority for government. But I believe that in these times we also need to foster a sense of community and shared experience. If as a society we let our investment in arts and culture decline we run the risk of creating a society that will be devoid of colour and fun, and cause us to focus on the negatives of life rather than the possibilities.
Public radio is important all over the world because it offers the chance for countries to reflect themselves without the imperatives of commercial issues. Radio NZ is for all New Zealanders, and as the nature of media changes, I personally believe that we need to look to enhance and develop its role, not undertake cuts that will undermine it.
If you feel the same, make sure you sign up to Brendon’s petition.
Thats all fair and good Grant, so what are you saying? Cuts should be made elsewhere to pay for it(and if so where) or extra revenue collected to pay for it . It may come as a shock, but public radio has to be paid for, how do you propose this is done?
Aw, the BBC is great why do they want to bleep with it?
I agree with much of what you say but I just can’t figure a classical, commercial-free, tax-payer-funded music station as being “for all New Zealanders”. This is obviously untrue and I think “all New Zealanders” have a right to expect this self indulgence to be discontinued in order to be able to afford the more-general news and information programmes that the YA network broadcasts. I enjoy some classical music but I stream an Internet station or play CDs to hear it. Why on earth one genre of music is broadcast commercial-free to the exclusion of hip-hop, blues, country, rock, 60s pop etc is beyond me. Do lovers of dead, white, European, male composers have lobbying powers that most of us are unaware of?
Actually Grant,
the changes proposed to Radio NZ and the changes proposed to the BBC are not the same. The only thing that is the same is that they are both public broadcasters.
“The BBC’s strategy review had been billed as a radical overhaul of the corporation. But arguably, there were more radical changes in the 1990s, when the BBC first decided to develop its digital TV and radio stations and its website.
And the aim of the new strategy is to focus on things the BBC has traditionally done well and which connect with big audiences, which is hardly a radical idea.
But this is the first time the organisation has voluntarily offered to reduce its services. That is partly in response to political pressures, prompted in turn by commercial rivals who complain that the BBC has become too big and too aggressive.”
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/8546420.stm
Hardly sounds like Radio NZ does it?, too big and too aggressive?
@John – they play a wide variety of stuff not just dead white composers. I recently heard something interesting by a band that I had never heard of.
“If as a society we let our investment in arts and culture decline we run the risk of creating a society that will be devoid of colour and fun”.
So tell us please, where is the “colour and fun” in Radio NZ ?
So tell us please, is “colour and fun” something that taxpayers have to pay for ? I get plenty of colour and fun with no input from state organisations at all – so do ALL the many young people I know.
Are you implying that “arts and culture” depend on taxpayers money ? Well come on, out with it – do you ?
If you do, then please, come visit me and I’ll show you Art and Culture that thrives with not a cent of state support.
“Also similar is a belief among conservative sections that public radio is somehow biased against them, not that there is any evidence to back this up of course.
” – no evidence is there ? have you actually listened to National Radio programmes recently ? If not, tune in to the Sunday program and get an overdose of liberal smug stuff.
I heard the host of that program abusing “climate change deniers…” – classic liberal sentiments, just abuse people whose opinions you don’t approve of.
I reckon that you can depend on the votes of the people loudly proclaiming the virtues of Radio NZ Grant, they probably voted left all their lives. The votes you need are those of people who don’t currently support Labour – you’re on a loser here Grant, you’re preaching to the converted, no way to expand the congregation.
Come on Labour Wake Up – NZ needs an effective opposition !
@John. Concert is an interesting aspect of the role of public radio. I would absolutely accept that if we were starting RNZ now it is questionable if Concert would be created. But it exists and has a good following. What I would like to see is the development of a range of digital channels, that cater for a range of tastes. They are reasonably cheap to produce and could cover other genres.
@sweetd. I accept, and actually said, that the scale of the BBC is different,but the notion of an undermining of public radio/broadcasting still lies at the heart of the changes.
@Rich. Every country in the western world has significant public investment in arts and culture. It does not preclude private investment, and there is lots of that as well, which is great. If we did not have public investment many people would miss out. As to who is concerned about the cuts to RNZ, you would be surprised which parts of the political spectrum they come from, and in any case this is just one of many issues we are campaigning on.
Will both people who turned up to the recent protest (slightly more that turned up the the SuperCity Protest) sign the petition.
I really get the feeling that there is no concerted focus with Labour – essentially your lot seem to be opposed to anything and everything National propose – ie the shot-gun apporoach. Whether it is GST, National Standards, Radio NZ or the Super City Labour are opposed because well – National it so it must be bad. In the process of your objection you exagerate the facts (eg National Radio at risk, GST increases will be 20%, ) and people turn off because they no longer believe you.
I really do not think people care that much about Radio NZ funding of $38m per annum being locked and loaded for the coming years. If people don’t care then you may as well be screaming in a sound proof room for all the impact you are going to have.
@spud. Yep its great when you dont have to pay for it
The BBC has been the home of the waifs and strays of the left leaning liberals for years. Providing employment for all the political sciences and arts grads who couldn’t get a job in the real world.
From their own internal report…
“BBC executives admitted the corporation is dominated by homosexuals and people from ethnic minorities, deliberately promotes multiculturalism, is anti-American, anti-countryside and more sensitive to the feelings of Muslims than Christians.”
“Further, it discloses that the BBC’s ‘diversity tsar’, wants Muslim women newsreaders to be allowed to wear veils when on air.”
Quoting a George Orwell observation, Randall said that the BBC was full of intellectuals who ‘would rather steal from a poor box than stand to attention during God Save The King’
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/article-23371617-we-are-biased-admit-the-stars-of-bbc-news.do
“Yep its great when you dont have to pay for it
” 
A man after my own heart!
Not so much with the rest of your comments though.
The difference between BBC and NZ is that in UK we still pay a licence fee. Muldoon did away with that in NZ, allegedly because he was annoyed with the news! But then he did not like Tom Scott either! So BBC does not have to always meet the demands of the advertisers who are chasing a particular audience. And this is the puzzling aspect of the proposed cuts to Asian radio and to BBC 6 which I think features new music and nurtures new bands and artists.
Grant, if we did not have Concert, we would never hear that music, those plays on radio. It is a minority taste. Radio NZ and the Maori stations and some community stations are supported through our taxes to give voice to the different tastes within our community. Those different voices enrich our lives…otherwise we might all be Sarah Palins, content to live in our ignorance of other worlds.
The BBC is under direct threat in UK from our good friends, the Murdochs!!! Hey ho here we go again!!!
I still haven’t read anywhere on this blog any sort of moral defense of coercively-funded broadcasting. Just how does it benefit someone who is forced to pay for it through their taxes but never listens to State Radio?