As much as I’m reluctant to give any oxygen to the views of bloggers who are the mouthpieces for the National Party I think it’s time David Farrar at Kiwiblog was held to account for his disingenuous views on public broadcasting.

First he blogged:

For months and months I have been saying the faux outrage over TVNZ7 is misguided. I have consistently said that what matters is the programmes.

Then he said this in a second blogpost:

I think this shows that the Save TVNZ7 movement is all about ego and politics, and has little to do with an actual desire to have good public broadcasting in NZ

David  you should apologise to the Save TVNZ7 movement for that comment. You obviously missed their statement welcoming the news that TV3 is picking up Media 7.

It’s incredible that you can see the survival of a single programme as adequate compensation for the loss of an entire channel that delivered a full, advertising-free menu of great New Zealand and international content that isn’t being picked up by the commercially-focused networks.

The rescue of Media 7 – now Media 3 – is no great thanks to TV3. It won’t cost them anything. NZ On Air is picking up the bill.  You might like to wonder how NZ On Air suddenly found that funding when it cut its funding for Q+A and the Nation by $156,000 this year, after the pressure came on from TVNZ for more “commercially attractive” New Zealand programmes.

You can find another measure of the pressure on the production of “good public broadcasting” in NZ On Air’s Local Content report last year. NZ On Air only managed to fund just 14% of all the first-run local content screened on the six major channels last year, compared to 21% the year before. While it trumpeted that it was funding more local content on our TV channels, it was in fact counting all the repeats. The real figures showed original local content had in fact decreased.

Its statement of intent indicates the decline is going to continue this year and again in the next financial year when total NZ On Air funded hours are forecast to fall to 767 hours, down from 788.5 hours this year, and 875 hours the year before that. That’s what’s happening to good public broadcasting, Mr Farrar.

Last night in Auckland in a packed hall in Freemans Bay, speaker after speaker rose from the floor to speak passionately about how important it was to our nation to keep a public television service.

This was the first of seven public meetings being organised around the country by SaveTVNZ7, a group which formed last year to try to save TVNZ7 from being axed by the National Government on 30 June.

Meeting details:
Wellington – Monday May 21st, Wesley Church Hall, 75 Taranaki St 7-9pm
Nelson - Friday May 25th – Trafalgar Pavilion Hall 6-8pm
Christchurch – Monday May 28th (venue tbc)
Palmerston North – Tuesday 5th June Apologies Wednesday 6th June- All Saints Church Hall, cnr The Square & Church St
Dunedin – Thursday 7th June – Barnett Theatre – Otago University,
Hamilton – June 13th (venue tbc)

If you can, please attend a meeting in your town. If you want a meeting in your community contact myself or Myles Thomas, the SaveTVNZ7 organiser savetvnz7@gmail.com

The NZ Herald has video coverage here of last night’s event which began with pallbearers bringing in the coffin of TVNZ7. Worth a watch.

The death of public television will be at the National Govt’s hands.

The seventh last episode of Back Benches screens tonight on TVNZ7 at 9pm. If you’re in Wellington, go along and watch. Labour’s Grant Robertson will be speaking. There may be a visitation by the Goodnight Kiwi.

Today I released a private members bill to save TVNZ7. It goes into a ballot of members bills and has to be drawn to be debated. It would need the support of opposition parties across the House (including the Maori Party and Peter Dunne) in order to succeed.

It creates an independent broadcasting foundation to run the channel which would be renamed TV7. It would be funded by Television New Zealand at $14 million per year – although TVNZ would no longer run it – and would, as far as is practicable, share production facilities and back office services with other state-funded networks.

I reckon we have a right to expect TV that’s about us and tells our stories. So our kids grow up watching Kiwi programmes and not developing American accents. Programmes that become part of the fabric of our lives, whether they’re about dogs herding sheep, Kiwi comedians and satirists, good Kiwi documentaries and dramas and some investigative news. It need not all be Kiwi content. But it should be ours, with no commercials and something we can be proud of.

I’m not precious about what’s on our TV. But I think I, like many other people, want more choice. And I want a channel which is driven by values and not by the advertising dollar.

Public broadcasting everywhere plays an important educative and informative role and is considered an essential responsibility of the state to its citizens. It comes at a cost, but is seen as a cost that must be borne. New Zealand must not turn its back on this responsibility.

In Australia, the ABC network is an integral part of the media and people’s lives. It receives funding from the government of around $912 million a year. Australia’s SBS Channel which carries a small amount of advertising, receives more than $200 million a year. In that context $14 million isn’t much to ask.

TVNZ7 has cost around $16 million a year to run for the last 4 years. It’s watched by more than 1.4 million viewers a month. It has been run by TVNZ and has never been strongly marketed because TVNZ felt it wasn’t in its interests to do so.

On 30 June it will be axed because the National Government doesn’t want to continue funding it. Around the world the audiences for public broadcasting around the world are vast and diverse – they are not elite sections of the population. Most OECD countries ensure that citizens have access to at least one public television channel. They recognise that public television can contribute to a better informed society.

New Zealanders have a right to expect their government to put a value on public broadcasting.

Between now and the end of June there will be a series of public meetings around the country for people to say what they think about public broadcasting. I’ll post details of them tomorrow.

If my Bill gets drawn I hope it will receive broad support, and that MPs who support public broadcasting will vote to send it to a select committee. I reckon it’s worth it.

There are eight more episodes of Back Benches left. Watch it tonight at 9pm.

On 30 June, unless the government changes its mind, or is forced to change its mind, TVNZ 7, our commercial free public broadcast TV Channel will be switched off.

Tell Craig Foss, the Minister of Broadcasting that it’s wrong. Send him an email craig.foss@parliament.govt.nz

Tell John Key john.key@parliament.govt.nz

Join the Save TVNZ7 facebook page. Sign their petition.

Write letters to your paper. Attend a public meeting in your town and city in the next few weeks. Save TVNZ 7 is setting up a series of public meetings to talk about why Public Service TV is so important to New Zealand. So far they have organised meetings in Auckland, Wellington, Nelson, Christchurch and Dunedin. They arelooking for people to help organise and publicise these meetings. They also want to setup meetings in other towns and cities around the country too. So if you’re able to help please email at savetvnz7@gmail.com

Join the facebook page here

Visit the website here

Those who dismissively tell New Zealanders that they don’t need, and don’t deserve, public broadcasting.

This was today’s Christchurch Press editorial:

TVNZ7 was always something of an anomalous relic in broadcasting. It was established by TVNZ to run “public service” programmes, which generally means worthy programming which only a few people want to watch. In this context it turned out to mean a mildly liberal agenda of plenty of stuff about novelists, sculptors, painters and the like, some routine Leftish navel-gazing about the media and formless chit-chat on politics, and nothing to speak of on, for instance, finance, business or singing the virtues of, or even explaining, the economic system that dominates so much political discourse nowadays.

It begs the question; what are they afraid of from a free public broadcasting media service not driven by commercial interests, directed by an independent governing agency?