Gisborne Herald
  • Gisborne Herald Home
  • Latest news
  • Business
  • Lifestyle
  • Sport

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • On The Up
  • Business
  • Lifestyle
  • Sport

Locations

  • Gisborne
  • Bay of Plenty
  • Hawke's Bay

Media

  • Today's Paper - E-Editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

Weather

  • Gisborne

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / Gisborne Herald / Opinion

Society suffers in age of diktat and pandering

Gisborne Herald
20 Apr, 2023 01:15 PMQuick Read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.

A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.

Opinion

It’s ironic in an age of information-sharing progressed by technological advancements, that we have self-appointed Information Czars who from their positions in society, determine what information they deem we should know — based solely on their own opinion.

We can always expect governments to be conveniently disingenuous with the truth — the current Govt indeed took this to extremes with their “single source of truth” operandi.

But in more recent times, the media, once a profession that strived for truth, objectivity and balanced reporting, are now just serving up their version of what they consider the truth, usually closely aligned with their own beliefs or those of their paymasters.

So it was refreshing to see Elon Musk take to task a poorly prepared BBC journo recently, exposing his false accusations on freedom of speech, and firing back the disingenuous covid reporting that had emerged from the BBC (though the BBC were far from alone in this).

We now have a global environment where many western governments and most western media are pandering to the loud and vocal minority groups, to the detriment of the majority.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

The pandering has reached such levels that recently here it resulted in police inaction, putting innocent members of the public at risk from an activist mob.

We have to return to a society that tolerates different opinions, not cancels them. Progress is not achieved within echo chambers. And a society that strives to treat everyone equal, where information flow is not dictated by the self-important Czars.

Iain Boyle

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Save

    Share this article

Latest from Gisborne Herald

Gisborne Herald

'We'll keep the fire burning': Ngāti Oneone remains committed to land reclamation protest

20 Jun 05:00 PM
Gisborne Herald

Tonnes of promise: Angus Bull Week set to make millions

20 Jun 12:00 AM
Gisborne Herald

Our top Premium stories this year: Special offer for Herald, Viva, Listener

19 Jun 08:11 PM

Jono and Ben brew up a tea-fuelled adventure in Sri Lanka

sponsored
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Gisborne Herald

'We'll keep the fire burning': Ngāti Oneone remains committed to land reclamation protest

'We'll keep the fire burning': Ngāti Oneone remains committed to land reclamation protest

20 Jun 05:00 PM

An online petition supporting the hapū has over 1950 signatures.

Tonnes of promise: Angus Bull Week set to make millions

Tonnes of promise: Angus Bull Week set to make millions

20 Jun 12:00 AM
Our top Premium stories this year: Special offer for Herald, Viva, Listener

Our top Premium stories this year: Special offer for Herald, Viva, Listener

19 Jun 08:11 PM
From top to bottom: Gisborne slumps to last on economic scoreboard, locals still optimistic

From top to bottom: Gisborne slumps to last on economic scoreboard, locals still optimistic

19 Jun 06:00 AM
Help for those helping hardest-hit
sponsored

Help for those helping hardest-hit

NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Subscribe to the Gisborne Herald
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • Gisborne Herald
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • NZME Events
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Photo sales
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP