Alistar Kata
AUCKLAND (Pacific Media Watch/Pacific Media Centre): Investigative journalist and author Nicky Hager has condemned the New Zealand government as being "arrogant" over revelations about its spying on Pacific neighbours.
Hager talked with journalist Selwyn Manning last night about the implications and challenges to the New Zealand public and Pacific communities.
The interview was hosted on a new independent interactive news website, eveningreport.nz
Manning, editor of eveningreport.nz, said the launch of the website could not have come any sooner.
“I intended for the launch to be in April," he said.
“But with the investigation rolling out of the Snowden revelations and what that means to New Zealanders - but most importantly to those in the Pacific region - the site is perfect for that type of topic”.
With the recent wave of popularity with online media, particularly blog sites, Manning said audiences needed a place where “robust debate” took place.
Blogs partisan
“Most of the blogs are very partisan, they’re extremely biased and often are opinion driven in their items and articles," he said.
“I think that the New Zealand public deserve to have a place where it can go irrespective of the political position a person may have, where they can have robust debate without being swamped by people attacking their views."
As well as providing a reliable news service, eveningreport.nz will engage audiences in debates through respectful channels.
“The You Live section for example will provide a live text, live audio and live video platform for the audience itself to debate the issues in real time," Manning said.
“There are safety mechanisms built into the technology, so if someone’s being an idiot on the live functions of the site whether it be audio or whatever, people can report that person.”
The eveningreport.nz site launched on Monday, March 9, at 8pm.
The You Live interactive audience section will be launched on Thursday, March 12.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 New Zealand Licence.
Alistar Kata
