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Gavin Ellis: Forensic detail on NZME but where are the guarantees?

KNIGHTLY VIEWS: By Gavin Ellis
Excoriating is the word that may best describe expat Canadian James Grenon’s 11-page critique of NZME. His forensic examination of the board he hopes to replace and the company’s performance is a sobering read.

You may not have seen the letter. At the time of writing, it was still sitting behind The New Zealand Herald’s Premium paywall. It is, however, available through the New Zealand Stock…
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Trump silences Voice of America – end of a propaganda machine or void for China and Russia to fill?


ANALYSIS: By Valerie A. Cooper, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington
Of all the contradictions and ironies of Donald Trump’s second presidency so far, perhaps the most surprising has been his shutting down the US Agency for Global Media (USAGM) for being “radical propaganda”.

Critics have long accused the agency — and its affiliated outlets such as Voice of America, Radio Free Europe and Radio Free Asia…

Marshall Islands: How the Rongelap evacuation changed the course of history

SPECIAL REPORT: By Giff Johnson
The late Member of Parliament Jeton Anjain and the people of the nuclear test-affected Rongelap Atoll changed the course of the history of the Marshall Islands by using Greenpeace’s Rainbow Warrior ship to evacuate their radioactive home islands 40 years ago.

They did this by taking control of their own destiny after decades of being at the mercy of the United States nuclear testing programme and its…

Gavin Ellis: Canadian billionaire must explain his designs on NZME – now

COMMENTARY: By Gavin Ellis
New Zealand-based Canadian billionaire James Grenon owes the people of this country an immediate explanation of his intentions regarding media conglomerate NZME. This cannot wait until a shareholders’ meeting at the end of April.

Is his investment in the owner of The New Zealand Herald and NewstalkZB nothing more than a money-making venture to realise the value of its real estate marketing subsidiary? Has he no more interest…

Vanuatu mourns loss of iconic Pacific media pioneer Marc Neil-Jones

OBITUARY: By Terence Malapa in Port Vila
Vanuatu’s media community is in mourning following the death on Monday of Marc Neil-Jones, founder of the Trading Post Vanuatu, which later became the Vanuatu Daily Post, and also radio 96BuzzFM. He was 67.

His fearless pursuit of press freedom and dedication to truth have left an indelible mark on the country’s media landscape.

Neil-Jones’s journey began in 1989 when he arrived…

Gavin Ellis: Amazon founder Bezos dims lights on democracy

COMMENTARY: By Gavin Ellis
Little more than a month into the new US presidency, The Washington Post’s owner dimmed the light on a motto that became a beacon for freedom during the first Trump administration.

“Democracy dies in darkness” has appeared below Washington Post for the past eight years.

Last month it was powdered in irony after the newspaper’s owner, Jeff Bezos, decreed in an email to staff that the newspaper’s editorial…

Union wary of Canadian billionaire Jim Grenon’s NZ media influence

By Susan Edmunds, RNZ News money correspondent
The Aotearoa New Zealand union representing many of NZME’s journalists says it is “deeply worried” by a billionaire’s plans to take over its board.

Auckland-based Canadian billionaire Jim Grenon is leading a move to dump the board of media company NZME, owners of The New Zealand Herald and NewsTalk ZB.

He has told the company’s board he wants to remove most of the…

Manipulated media: The weapon of the Right

The re-election of Donald Trump is proof that the Right’s most powerful weapon is media manipulation, ensuring the public sphere is not engaged in rational debate, reports the Independent Australia.

COMMENTARY: By Victoria Fielding
I once heard someone say that when the Left and the Right became polarised — when they divorced from each other — the Left got all the institutions of truth including science, education, justice and democratic government.

Parihaka’s matriarch, champion of tikanga and peace advocate Maata Wharehoka dies at 74

OBITUARY: By Heather Devere
Maata Wharehoka (Ngāti Tahinga, Ngāti Koata, Ngāti Apakura, Ngāti Toa, Ngāti Kuia. 1950-2025

Maata Wharehoka has been described as the Parihaka Matriarch, Parihaka leader and arts advocate, “champion of Kahu Whakatere Tupapaku, the tikanga Māori practices, expert in marae arts, raranga (weaving) and karanga”, renowned weaver who revived traditional Māori methods of death and burial, “driving force behind Parihaka’s focus to be a self-sufficient community”, Kaitiaki (or guardian)…

Kia Ora Whānau #8 - APMN News updates


Kia Ora Whānau #8
Asia Pacific Network News Updates #8/2025. 23 February 2025.

Our latest newsletter is rather late in the day, but much has been happening with the APMN whanau over the past few months, and a lot more is on the way.
 
Making Connections book launch
As a quick intro, friends and supporters gathered at the Ponsonby home of our chair Heather Devere for a garden celebration of the…

US backing for Pacific disinformation media course casualty of Trump aid ‘freeze’

Pacific Media Watch
A New Zealand-based community education provider, Dark Times Academy, has had a US Embassy grant to deliver a course teaching Pacific Islands journalists about disinformation terminated after the new Trump administration took office.

The new US administration requested a list of course participants and to review the programme material amid controversy over a “freeze” on federal aid policies.

The course presentation team refused and the contract was terminated…

Mediawatch: NZ media in the middle of Asia-Pacific diplomatic drama

MEDIAWATCH: By Colin Peacock, RNZ Mediawatch presenter
By the time US President Donald Trump announced tariffs on China and Canada last Monday which could kickstart a trade war, New Zealand’s diplomats in Washington, DC, had already been deployed on another diplomatic drama.

Republican Senator Ted Cruz had said on social media it was “difficult to treat New Zealand as a normal ally . . .  when they denigrate and punish Israeli…
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