Pacific broadcasts

Press, 15 March 1982, Page 20

Pacific broadcasts

The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr Cooper, is ready to see the end of New Zealand’s shortwave broadcasts to the Pacific as a saving in his Ministry’s spending and as a way to avoid spending perhaps $6 million on a new transmitter. This could be a good opportunity for a thorough examination of what the broadcasts achieve, and should achieve. So far it has not been shown that the best interests of New Zealand or the Pacific will be served if the broadcasts stop and leave the air open to Australian and other short-wave broadcasts.'. Room for improvements in the programmes may be possible as well as economies in providing the service. If the service is axed entirely, something more could be lost beyond simply the good will of those'who have listened to the programmes in the past. The service is not cheap to run and the programmes, prepared for New Zealand audiences, may leave something to be desired, although the Broadcasting Corporation which provides the service and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs which pays to maintain it might well be able to produce evidence that the service is widely appreciated and serves its purposes. Even if it is possible to agree with Mr Cooper that the service provided at present is, in part at least, a waste of time, effort and money on New Zealand’s side, the specific ground on which Mr Cooper criticised the programmes is dubious. Mr Cooper said that he had not had many reports coming back saying that the programmes were putting New Zealand as a nation in the best possible light. New Zealand should never stoop to broadcasting propaganda; the aim of maintaining such services, if they can be justified at all, should not be to “sell” New Zealand in any crude or political sense but to disseminate accurate information about events in New Zealand and, more generally, to weave ties which, in any number of foreseeable circumstances in the future, it will clearly be to New Zealand’s advantage to have maintained and strengthened. Simply providing people living in the Pacific islands with a service that helps overcome their sense of isolation and encourages them to see New Zealand as a close and interested country must earn good will. This should enhance New Zealand’s standing, and influence, in the region for which it should have the most intimate concern.

Labour’s Shadow Minister of Broadcasting, Mr J. L. Hunt, was close to the important point when he said that New Zealand had a duty to maintain a message in the areas/of greatest concern for New Zealand’s foreign relations. The physical character of the region makes radio an important medium in the Pacific. New Zealand must continue to use the medium in some way to ensure that developments in New Zealand are properly understood, particularly in the island States; to maintain links and ties of a sentimental and cultural nature (which may well have subsequent political and economic importance); and, not least, to dispel any iihpression among New Zealand’s own communities’of Islanders that the rest of the country is indifferent towards what is know about New. Zealand in their homelands.

If the Government’s real concern is that it is not getting its money’s worth from the broadcasts, especially if several million dollars has to be spent to provide adequate modern transmitters to maintain the service, it should explore ways of economising on providing the service without axing it completely. One possibility may be to buy broadcast time from the Australians, rather than buy new equipment for New Zealand’s exclusive use. It is high time that closer relations with Australia had other than a purely trade character. Australia might well be happy to share the costs of maintaining the equipment necessary to broadcast to the Pacific. A limited, but specialised service from New Zealand on shared wavelengths may be just what will serve the region best.

If savings could be made in this way, it might be possible to find limited sums for the more careful selection of programmes, to overcome any criticism that the programmes being broadcast are of little interest in the island States in particular. A careful scrutiny of different ways in which the service could be maintained in some form or another, while not necessarily costing as much to 'maintain, is the appropriate course. When spending cuts are needed, pointless or unappreciated services should be stopped forthwith. This does not mean that the economical answer is to provide no service at all. Filling the gap later might cost much more than is saved in the short run.