Sombre church music filled Freemans Bay Community Centre as a coffin, draped in the New Zealand flag and with the words "public service television" on its side, was carried into the hall last night.
The future of New Zealand's public broadcasting is uncertain, with the government cutting funding for the last public service channel, TVNZ 7, at the end of June.
More than 300 members of the public and a number of Auckland MPs gathered in support of the Save TVNZ 7 campaign.
The Green Party's Julie Anne Genter said people preparing to mourn the death of TVNZ 7 should take the opportunity to seek the "birth of something even better ... A real, true public broadcaster".
Labour MP Clare Curran said the government does not value public broadcasting.
"The government says we can't afford it, we don't need it, that no one watches it, and those that do are part of an elite, and that public broadcasting can be delivered anyway ... All of those arguments are rubbish."
She compared New Zealand's funding of public broadcasting with overseas governments.
"The UK government invests $4.6 billion every year in BBC. In Australia, $912 million a year goes into the ABC. $16 million a year in TVNZ 7 - it's not much."
Public broadcasting allows for quirky, interesting, challenging and thought-provoking programmes, she said.
"Let's not have our kids growing up on American TV ... Let's not fill our screens every night with reality shows based on formulas that have been developed overseas. It's fine that we have them, but let's have the choice of other things as well. Particularly content that's developed by Kiwis and is about Kiwis."
New Zealand First list member Andrew Williams said the country is experiencing the "dumbing down of television". He said it is disturbing that TVNZ is not forthcoming with information and figures of TVNZ 7's performance.
He claimed the former minister of broadcasting, Jonathan Coleman, used January ratings to support his reasoning for the closure of TVNZ 7. This is a time when people are away on holiday, he said.
"If you use a January figure to substantiate your reason for closing a channel, that's pretty manipulative, and that's pretty underhand. We want the facts of this."
Members of the public were able to voice their opinions in an open forum at the meeting. People argued the importance of public broadcasting, saying it is essential to the foundation of a democracy and should be free from political, financial and commercial interests.
The Auckland public meeting is the first of seven nationwide meetings organised by Save TVNZ 7. Their online petition has attracted more than 22,000 signatures.
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