Tribal Radio Goes Global

PÄNUI PÄPÄHO
MEDIA STATEMENT

Te 11 o ngä rä o Whiringa-ä-rangi 2003

KI A:

Chief Reporters
Broadcasting Reporters
Mäori Affairs Reporters

TRIBAL RADIO GOES GLOBAL

A major milestone in Mäori broadcasting will be marked in Wellington today (11/11/03) with the launch of a new website to access iwi radio – www.irirangi.net.

Hone Harawira, the chairman of the national federation of Mäori radio stations, Te Whakaruruhau o Ngä Reo Irirangi Mäori o Aotearoa, says the new technology will allow listeners to tune into any one of 20 different Mäori radio stations anywhere in the world – 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Te Whakaruruhau and the board of the Mäori broadcasting funding agency, Te Mängai Päho, will unveil the internet gateway site at a function at Wellington’s Boatshed on the Taranaki Wharf at 4pm today.

Mr Harawira says internet broadcasting is the next necessary step in Mäori radio industry development.

Te Whakaruruhau has nurtured and consolidated an uncompromising focus on te reo Mäori broadcasting, he says, and Mäori radio is the unsung hero of language revitalisation efforts.

“Our stations are now ‘alive’ to more people than ever before,” Mr Harawira says.

“Internet broadcasting means potentially billions of people can begin to put together a visual picture of who we are and what we are all about while they listen to our stations.”

ENDS

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