The biggest story in the Pacific Island community is the dumping of the providers of the Pacific Island radio network by the trust that the Government appointed to oversee it. It came after months of acrimony that began almost the moment Niu FM hit the airwaves.
As it happens, it's a
story I'm intimately acquainted with. I've been watching this saga since it began and was allowed to fester. Not only do I know the major players on both sides of the story - not surprising in a community as small as ours - but I feel like the network is a baby whose birth I witnessed.
Back in August, when it scrambled to meet its contractual obligation to get on air five weeks from the date it signed the contract, I called on my broadcasting contacts to find staff, not easy when you consider how rare Pacific Island broadcasters are.
They're even harder to find than trained PI journalists, which is why I also helped out in the newsroom in the network's early days.
I didn't charge for my services. I'd like to say this was simply because of my selfless devotion to Pacific Island broadcasting but actually it was more to do with the fact that I was married to the then boss of the network and it didn't seem kosher to bill for the privilege.
That's my dilemma in all this. I am the journalist best placed to tell this story but because of that family connection, and the issues before the courts, it seems wisest to leave judgments of right and wrong to the High Court, where the claims and counterclaims will be tested later this week.
Let me confine myself instead to the historical facts - and to telling the story of the community-owned Auckland station, Radio 531PI, which seems to have been forgotten in all of this.
It is, in effect, Radio 531PI which, under the name Pasefika Communications Network, won the contract to provide the national network in July, before being unceremoniously sacked last week.
The station and Pasefika Communications are wholly owned by the Auckland Pacific Island Community Radio Trust. As its name implies, it is a community-owned charitable trust. Each of its 16 trustees are elected every two years by the Pacific communities they represent.
It's been an uphill battle for the station which pioneered pan-Pacific broadcasting. There were times early on when it seemed it might not survive.
On one such occasion, when staff had to take pay cuts to ensure the station's survival, we joked grimly that if the money was any lower, staff would end up paying for the privilege of working there.
But it held on, in the highly competitive Auckland market, delivering a mix of community, social and commercial programmes to Auckland's Pacific communities in both English and eight Pacific languages.
In 10 years, it has developed from a station struggling on annual New Zealand On Air funding of $125,000 to one that, for the past two years, has earned more than $1 million in advertising income. It did not do this by being imprudent with its money, nor did it do it by paying its management or trustees big money.
In fact, many of the people who have worked for Radio 531PI, from the community programme workers to the directors of the board, had done so for many years without being paid.
Among them, directors like Arthur Anae, a businessman and former National Party MP, who has been a stalwart of the station. James Prescott, who holds a master's degree with honours in accounting and finance from Auckland University and who, as well as holding other directorships, is a senior lecturer at the Auckland University of Technology.
And Brian Chamberlin, the chairman of the board at Radio 531PI, a former Federated Farmers president and Radio Pacific board member. Not a Pacific Islander but as passionate as any about the need for a Pacific voice in broadcasting.
Many others have given their time to the station. Only in the past few months have the Radio 531PI trustees been paid anything, and it's far less than they would get on a school board of trustees.
In a decade of dealing with New Zealand On Air and operating exactly as they've done with Niu FM, they have never had their reputations and integrity called into question.
What's different? Perhaps that is a question the Government ought to be asking itself with more vigour than it has done so far. What's at stake here is not only the future of Pacific broadcasting but exactly the kind of community-driven initiative the Government has purported to support.
The money funding the network was set aside to do what the Government calls "capacity building". That is why the national network was built on top of Radio 531PI, using its staff, resources and a decade of know-how and experience in pan-Pacific broadcasting.
It is no accident that the network's programming is cloned on the 531PI model. It was 531PI expertise and experience that officials used to develop the case which convinced the Government to put capacity building money into the network.
Radio 531PI's trustees always knew they were putting the station at risk, particularly if the Government decided not to continue funding the four-year pilot. But having given birth to the new network, Radio 531PI now finds itself in an even worse position than it was before the contract.
It's now up against a well-funded competitor which has transplanted its staff, duplicated its music and programming, and which is being run by the Government trust that was appointed to fund it. That surely wasn't what the Government meant by capacity building.
* Email Tapu Misa
Tapu Misa is married to Sefita Haouli, who was the interim Niu FM manager.
The biggest story in the Pacific Island community is the dumping of the providers of the Pacific Island radio network by the trust that the Government appointed to oversee it. It came after months of acrimony that began almost the moment Niu FM hit the airwaves.
As it happens, it's a
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