Bomber Bradbury, who many of you will be familiar with as the Left’s strident voice of the people on the War on News, has been banned from RNZ for criticising John Key. The news came out on MediaWatch on Radio New Zealand (26.30 mins in to the show).
The announcement came from RNZ CEO Peter Cavanagh, who did not elaborate other than to say that Bomber had breached RNZ’s requirements for “fairness and balance”. This is a disgrace – this is an attack on free speech. The link has been taken off the RNZ website so you cannot even listen to it now. I listened to it and it is just what Bomber said on his tv program. Nothing exciting. The reaction is shocking.
The link has been removed from RNZ’s website but the MP3 is still available for now:
http://podcast.radionz.co.nz/aft/aft-20111006-1638-the_panel_with_john_bishop_and_bomber_bradbury_part_2-048.mp3
Well, the title of that link explains quite a lot, given that John Bishop is a known National Party ally and his son Chris was for a long time the DebSoc president on VUW campus – as well as a frequenter of the Young Nat’s campus group and friendly with most of ACT on campus.
Any statement Bomber made would go straight to the production crew who are JB’s mates. JB is also a former staff member at Fairfax’s DomPost, which is hardly without bias towards the centre-right-wing as represented by John Key.
How is it an attack on free speech for RNZ to ban a commentator? Free speech is something that the government protects, not something for private companies. RNZ acts as a independent private company (although it is government owned) precisely so that there isn’t governmental interference with it, which is something the Greens Broadcasting policy wants to protect.
Besides, if what RNZ said is true, and that his statement’s breeched their fairness requirements, then why shouldn’t he be banned? After-all, how would you feel is RNZ provided a medium for someone to say libellous material about the Greens without room for comment?
It is an attack on free speech because now anyone who wishes to be on National Radio now knows that if they say the wrong things then they will never get on the radio again.
It is not a private company. It is a public service radio broadcaster and Crown entity formed by the Radio New Zealand Act 1995. It has a statutory responsibility to provoke debate and be the critic of society. That includes politicians. I cannot see where the “fairness and balance” protocol was breached – as there was a response from John Bishop. It was lame – but it was a response. There was no hate speech – he simply reported the facts of what happened and commented that he found them disgraceful. It was not libelous.
Josh, it is an attack on free speech given that, by RNZ’s own admission they strive for “fairness and balance”. RNZ panellists often include right wing commentators such as David Farrar and Mathew Hooten – Martyn Bradbury (and others) provide an alternative viewpoint.
If one side is banned, then what does that suggest to you?
And Radio NZ is not a private company. It is a State Owned Enterprise with public responsibilities.
This is a sad day for freedom in NZ when a left wing dissident is banned because he dared criticise the Prime Minister.
More here: http://tumeke.blogspot.com/2011/10/banned-from-radio-nz-for-criticizing.html
And a bit of background info on my site.
I hope people take time to email Radio NZ and let them know how we feel about this: rnz@radionz.co.nz
Gordon Campbell has a good go at the subject:
http://gordoncampbell.scoop.co.nz/2011/10/10/gordon-campbell-on-rnz%E2%80%99s-banning-of-bomber-bradbury/
There’s just so much more to this issue than anyone is actually covering – as though the media have all been sat down by the advertising industry and been threatened within an inch of their commercial lives if they so much as breath the truth about ‘client #1′, our current PM.
WTF is wrong with this country that a bunch of commercial interest can so skew the ‘impartiality’ so vaunted by our so-called ‘mainstream media’, otherwise identified as advertising whores who publish as little news as they can get away with while saturating their print and web publications with flashy, disruptive adverts?
I’m tempted to just make up a big list and announce a blanket boycott of main advertisers … who’s in?
I’d agree a ban seems a bit heavy handed – his comments certainly were not as offensive as the stuff that police show guy who is often a guest on The Panel manages to utter every three minutes or so. Or Stephen Franks. But, on the plus side Bradbury is one of those commentators whom I was never that happy having as a spokesperson for the left. Now if we can just get rid of Chris Trotter and Brian Edwards I’ll be able to listen to The Panel in peace again.
I see Kiwiblog says it’s not a ‘ban‘