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Download AudioBroadcasting Minister Willie Jackson says he hopes a merged Radio New Zealand and TVNZ can help restore trust in the media.
The proposed merger is stirring up controversy, with opponents saying the new entity would distort New Zealand’s media market.
Mr Jackson says having a major public broadcaster with both radio and television services is standard in many countries.
He says both state-owned services are still widely trusted as news sources, even as overall trust in the media seems to have fallen back and people turn to dubious online sources.
“Youtubes, Google, Netfix, TikTok, those types of things are real competitors and that’s a real worry for me because you end up with what we ended up in front of Parliament a few months ago with people going down those rabbit holes,” Mr Jackson says
He says there are still issues to be ironed out in the merger.
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