Pacific Media Watch

26 October 2014

NZ: Talks over move for Māori TV to Rotorua

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Māori TV's headquarters in Auckland ... move to Rotorua on the cards? Image: Māori TV
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9030

John Drinnan
AUCKLAND (New Zealand Herald / Pacific Media Watch): Te Arawa kaumatua Sir Toby Curtis has confirmed there have been talks between Māori Television and the Rotorua District Council and other iwi on a plan for studios in Rotorua, The New Zealand Herald reports.

The idea was to build a new centre for Māori TV in the city, which is the home base of Māori Affairs Minister Te Ururoa Flavell and is the tribal base of Māori TV chief executive Paora Maxwell. Māori TV chairman Georgina te Heuheu is a leader of Tuwharetoa, which is based in the Taupo region.

Curtis said that relocation to Rotorua was ideal because it was geographically central for many of the big iwi such as Tainui in the Waikato, Tuwharetoa in Taupo and Ngati Awa in eastern Bay of Plenty.

But Te Tai Tokerau MP Kelvin Davis and Auckland Tamaki Makaurau Labour MP Peeni Henare said that Māori TV should remain based in Auckland because the city was pan-tribal and should not be focused on any one iwi.

Māori  broadcasting is in the midst of upheavals with Māori Party plans to give iwi more influence over broadcasting, rather than its current Crown partners.

The new Te Matawai policy is being resisted by Māori broadcasters. This week Māori TV former news boss Julian Wilcox announced he would be leaving the channel.

On top of that TVNZ announced this week it was scrapping its Māori unit and outsourcing most of its content with the loss of up to 30 jobs.

Māori  Labour politicians believe plans to move Māori TV away from Auckland and south to Rotorua are serious.

Te Tai Tokerau MP Kelvin Davis believes the shift has been done without consultation other iwi and apparently without any formal process.

Maxwell rejected the claim but not that it was being considered.

TVNZ outsourcing plan 'catastrophic'

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New Zealand
Polynesia
Culture
Indigenous
Maori
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