July 23, 2020
Status quo no option for Māori media
Māori Development Minister Nanaia Mahuta is confident she is shifting Māori media in the right direction.
At the core of her Māori Media Shift proposal is a single Māori news service be located within the Māori Television Service, with iwi media organisations acting as regional news bureaus to feed in content.
Ms Mahuta says the sector can’t stay still, because it is moving into a digital world where there is a demand for content-rich stories about Māori.
"If people bunker down and say we don't want to go anywhere then they'll stay in the same place, sure, that's their choice, but if we believe te reo Māori and the Māori world view can be distributed and pushed out in a much broader context with much greater impact then I do believe I will achieve the objectives I am setting out to achieve," she says.
Consultation has finished and officials are now refining options to be considered by Cabinet before they go back out to talk with Māori media and spectrum groups on detailed designs and business cases.
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