NZ Government to Disestablish the BSA (opens in new tab)

I’m highly doubtful about this - it seems to be an excuse to disestablish the BSA, rather than a genuine basis for the decision.

I think this will help drive more partisan and sensationalist media, like one gets in the US. NZ has been relatively resistant to populism and partisanism in the past, partially because we have a watchdog to make the media all play nice.

Based on their arguments, they should really be expanding the BSA’s remit to officially cover internet-based NZ media.

Also, they’ve done a press release and talked on the radio about it to try and stir up headlines, but it’s highly unlikely to get through parliament before the upcoming election. Based on the current polling, the makeup of parliament is likely to dramatically alter by the end of the year: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opinion_polling_for_the_2026_N...

This is what caused their problems

https://lawnews.nz/administrative-public/bca-investigates-it...

They investigated one too many rightwinger who supported the government

Does NZ have a right wing government right now? Nothing in the history of anything has ever improved with “Self regulation” so it must be useless policy season.

New Zealand has always imported the bulk of its television content from the USA, Australia and the UK (more rarely Canada and elsewhere) and yet New Zealanders are forced to pay a sky high TV licence. Where is this money really going? The obvious answer is that a handful of people are creaming it off to fund their lifestyles rather than to produce domestic content. Has the BSA ever addressed this obvious elephant in the room?

Other than "Shortland Street", the news and some sports games, there has been disappointingly little in the way of domestic television production. A shame because NZ can produce excellent films and dramas sometimes. It is pretty clear that Peter Jackson has done more for New Zealand that way than the state broadcasters ever did.

The US did something similar in the 1980s Reagan years, look were the US is now. You really should expand it to new media.

So, welcome to the oligarchy, were a few ultra rich controls media.