Maori Party Welcomes Proposals to Manage Broadcast Coverage of Parliamentary Proceedings

Tariana Turia and Dr Pita Sharples, Co-leaders, Maori Party

Tuesday 26 June 2007

“The report of the Standing Orders Committee, Television coverage of the House, includes proposals which will support a more positive parliamentary environment” said Dr Pita Sharples, co-leader of the Maori Party.

“Indeed, it builds on the momentum of the MMP parties who have taken a stand to highlight that for some time now, the debating chamber has reflected a poor environment for political debate”.

On 12 June 2007, the Maori Party signed up to the Code of Conduct, which the Party believes supports their commitment to act ethically and with integrity.

“The Code of Conduct also fits well with the Maori Party kaupapa and tikanga which are our guiding force to influence the way in which we act in the House” said Dr Sharples.

“The proposed conditions in the Standing Orders Committee report; that stipulate, “reports that use extracts of coverage of proceedings would have to be fair and accurate” and further that coverage can not be used for “satire, ridicule or denigration” are inkeeping with this movement towards higher standards in Parliament” said Dr Sharples.

“We are not unduly concerned about the media coverage in terms of our own particular representation” said Mrs Turia, “because we have very clear standards to abide by that we have set ourselves”.

“The two big issues for us though, are to ensure that the behaviour in Parliament improves in the first place; and secondly, for what purposes would the media want to record any events other than the business of the house?”

“Such considerations have been a big concern for the Maori Party as we know too well the number of studies which have found that newspaper and television are unfairly unbalanced in their treatment of Maori people and issues” said Mrs Turia.

“A study commissioned by the Broadcasting Standards Authority in 2003 for example, reported that in some media, denigrating and insulting coverage of Maori was reported” said Mrs Turia. “This was a finding that the United Nations Special Rapporteur also highlighted in his New Zealand report”.

“We would hope that the Standing Orders Committee report will assist media in resisting the urge to indulge in ‘satire, ridicule or denigration’ to poke fun at individuals, rather than representing the key policy issues and tensions of the day” ended Mrs Turia.

ENDS

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