Reporting of Maori issues ‘unbalanced’

Press, 13 September 1988, Page 4

Reporting of Maori issues ‘unbalanced’

By

JANE ENGLAND,

i, Maori affairs reporter

A unanimous decision that news media reporting of Maori and Pacific Island issues is predominantly “unbalanced, inaccurate and incompetent” has been reached by 100 participants in a hui on news media and race relations.

"The media is not at ease with Maori issues,” said the Governor-Gen-eral, Sir Paul Reeves, in a special statement released during a debate at Te Herenga Waka marae in Wellington at the weekend. His statement highlighted a common complaint that many reporters felt uncomfortable reporting Maori or Pacific Island events. “The media speaks about Maori issues but usually from the perspective of a spectator. Rarely does the media speak out of Maori aspirations and with a sense of being familiar with Maori custom. “Unavoidably, Maori issues are portrayed as a deviation from the norm of expected New Zealand behaviour.” Examples of biased and inaccurate reports were shown to the reporters, senior news media and Government executives and elders attending the hui. The reports revealed a common failure to check facts and a tendency to

colour stories with derogatory terms which denigrated Maori people. Two advertisements which appeared recently in most newspapers were also shown to contain a number of serious errors. A senior lecturer in sociology at Massey University, Mr Paul Spoonley, predicted that by the year 2000 one in four people would identify themselves as Polynesian and one in five people would be identified as Maori. He challenged the news media to investigate the activities of white Rightwing extremists which were “seeking to divide”, society. It was unlikely the news media would pay as much attention to statements made by pakeha extremists as those credited to Maori extremists, he said. The political manipulation of the news media in reporting Maori and Pacific Island issues, values, and perspectives was explored at the hui.

Reporters were en-

couraged to be wary of such manipulation and to check the

The Prime Minister, Mr Lange, said that editors had the first line of responsibility in setting the standard by which they wished to be judged. “The way race relations are defined, interpreted, explained and presented by the media affects, and sometimes forms the reactions of individuals and groups.” The Professor of Maori Studies at Victoria University, Professor Hirini Moko Mead, and the Race Relations Conciliator, Mr Wally Hirsh, said the news media had a responsibility to report tribunal proceedings in a thorough, balanced way. “We have to break a barrier where the media does not regard Maori people or their activities as being part of society,” said Professor Mead. “I would like to see more colour in the media, the colour that is there increased, so that colours the way Maori activities are reported.”

Recommendations to all

sectors of the news media

and watchdog groups will be released later this week.