Protesters outside parliament. Photo / Mark Mitchell
"This fund will be applied to those media outlets that are least critical of the government."
That's a comment from a NZ Herald subscriber after the Government announced it would pay out $55 million over three years to help ensure "public interest journalism" continued across New Zealand's media
landscape.
The subscriber who made that comment isn't alone in his concerns - even though they are wide of the mark. They come at a time when suspicion of the media, both at home and overseas, appears to be rising - particularly within the anti-vaxx and anti-mandate movements.
At the same time, on the commercial side of the industry, major local media players - including the NZ Herald - are seeking approval to collectively bargain with Facebook and Google to seek fair payment for Kiwi journalism used on their digital platforms.
That's a lot of moving parts - so how do they work together? Does the Government's journalism fund really threaten media impartiality? Why are anti-vaxxers so mad at the media - and how should the media respond?
