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Former broadcasting minister Willie Jackson says deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters is talking nonsense on the Public Interest Journalism Fund.
Mr Peters this week continued to niggle the media by referring to the $55 million fund as a bribe.
Mr Jackson says the fund went to print, broadcast, mainstream, Māori and online media with no conditions about reporting on Government activities.
“The guy is sort of losing the plot here, talking about the media being bribed. We gave out a sum to support media outlets, in the middle of Covid, gave them the opportunity to survive. Just because we were funding them doesn’t mean they were obliged to talk on our behalf,” he says.
Mr Jackson says National voters must be wondering what they voted for with New Zealand First and ACT seeming to dominate the Government’s programme.
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