Audrey Young: No good news to report from a censored site

Nga Puhi kaumatua Bruce Gregory is right about one thing: Waitangi had received plenty of adverse coverage from the media, my newspaper included, before he ordered that only Maori media were permitted to cover events at Te Tii Marae.

Yes, Bruce, that's because adverse events happen there. Ratana Pa does not get adverse publicity because adverse events don't happen there - the Ratana movement is also extremely hospitable to reporters, as it happens.

For example, in 1997, the first year I covered Waitangi, one of the Maori protesters on the Treaty Grounds raised a pair of boxer shorts up a stay on the grounds' flagpole. It was an adverse event for Tukoroirangi Morgan, who had been counting on a grander entrance for himself and his fellow New Zealand First MPs, who had swept to power three months before.

Last year Helen Clark, holding hands with Titewhai Harawira, made her first visit to Waitangi as Prime Minister since being reduced to tears by her escort at Te Tii.

Would Dr Gregory not have us report that? It was a significant event for the country, not just Nga Puhi.

At the dawn prayer service the next morning, in the ceremonial marae on the Treaty Grounds, Helen Clark was first shouted down by a protester then subjected to a 20-minute tirade from a woman claiming to speak for the real Maori Government. She was accused of treason, and reminded that treason was punishable by death.

Those running the show sat silent. It was a chilling experience.

Helen Clark wished it had never happened. Dr Gregory, a former Labour Northern Maori MP, might wish no one else knew it had. Anywhere else that is called censorship.

Now there's another adverse event to add, a more personal one this time: being banned from Te Tii Marae.

Yes, I could have slipped quietly in the back row of the wharenui as a citizen, minus notebook, to listen but not report Bill English and Helen Clark, without danger of being frog-marched out by Maori wardens.

Some reporters chose to do that - with the acceptance of the marae.

I stayed outside because I was unwelcome as a reporter and there was no point pretending otherwise.

The confusion over some reporters being present meant apologists could claim there was no ban.

Before yesterday, reporting Waitangi Day had been something to look forward to every year - the complications of the national soul are laid bare in one of the most stunning backdrops in New Zealand.

Dr Gregory says the ban will be reconsidered depending on the coverage of this year's events.

Well, it must be said that Helen Clark met some adverse reaction from Ngawha Prison protesters going into the marae on her way to the Copthorne Hotel.

Until then, the Prime Minister had a limited list of engagements: attending a reception at the Copthorne Resort hotel hosted by Governor-General Dame Silvia Cartwright (a ban on Maori and Pakeha media was lifted an hour before the reception started); hosting a breakfast today at the Copthorne (Maori and Pakeha media definitely banned); and attending a waka blessing, a stone's throw from the Copthorne.

Before Helen Clark's marae stopover, she had been in danger of attending Copthorne Day, not Waitangi Day.

While she was in the wharenui, the most adverse sight was a strange fellow wearing a Helen Clark/ Jim Anderton sandwich-board, a plastic policeman's helmet, and a piece of silver foil taped across his mouth.

Former Prime Minister Jenny Shipley and her husband Burton strolled around the grounds, and little boys played.

There was an awful crush and more protest when Helen Clark left.

Apparently inside it was a different matter. Nga Puhi showed the best of its hospitality and some great speeches were given all round. We'll never be sure.