Media funding

Radio NZ reports:

At the same time, RNZ will have its budget cut by $18m over four years – $4.6m a year – around 7 percent of its current $67m allocation.

This means they will still be getting $62 million a year. In 2017 they got $35 million. Any other media organisation would love to have revenues in 2025 that are 77% higher than in 2017.

Even if you take inflation into account, Radio NZ funding next year will be 38% higher than in 2017.

Budget 2025 includes $6.4 million over four years to hire journalists in heartland New Zealand for reporting on councils and courts.

Minister for Media and Communications Paul Goldsmith said the funding will help communities stay informed and hold decision-makers to account.

“It will get funding into regional newsrooms so that more local frontline journalists can report on the things that matter to their audiences.”

The money will expand two existing programmes – Local Democracy Reporting and Open Justice – which the minister said had an emphasis on “reporting, rather than opinion”.

These two areas are the rare areas of media worth funding centrally. As Goldsmith says they are old fashioned reporting, not opinion. But they are also vital parts of New Zealand that need sunlight. We want media reports of court cases, and decisions by Councils.