SHE SAYS:
press.co.nz
If we drink rubbishy water we would
get very sick.
Milika Perry (aged 5)
A12
THE PRESS, Tuesday, December 3, 2013
Bigger picture needed on Town Hall revamp
New definition
of media needed
U
ntil recently, the question
of who is a journalist and
what is a news medium
was relatively straightforward.
Journalists were people who
worked for outlets delivering
news and commentary within
an industry governed by rules to
ensure ethical standards,
including fairness, accuracy and
balance. The proliferation in the
last decade of alternative
sources of news and comment
has muddled things.
A recent decision by a
District Court judge that the
well-known, some would say
notorious, Whale Oil blog is not
a news medium highlights the
difficulty.
In a paper on new media
published last year, the Law
Commission observed that
bloggers are often highly
partisan, can be offensive and
abusive and are not accountable
to anybody. The commission
later modified that view to note
that some of New Zealand’s 200
or more current-affairs bloggers
have become a rich alternative
source of information and
commentary.
The Whale Oil blog run by
Cameron Slater certainly fits the
commission’s first description.
His commentary on a wide array
of topics is heavily tendentious
and often gratuitously rude. His
campaigns can also be wrongheaded, the most notable being a
wildly irresponsible campaign a
couple of years ago against name
suppression that resulted in his
incurring convictions and stiff
fines.
But he also attracts more
than 1 million visitors a month,
more than the next five New
Zealand bloggers put together
and he has broken stories that
have been taken up with gusto
by other media.
Council runs risk
I must ask if the actions of Mayor
Dalziel and the new council in
stopping supplying lunches at allday meetings and stopping the
$25-per-team-member Christmas
‘‘shout’’ would happen in the
private sector by good employers?
I doubt it.
Over the next few weeks, good
employers will be shouting staff all
sorts of Christmas treats while
council staff will be left sniffing
corks and sucking last year’s cake
wrappers with its budget of $3.18
each.
While fiscal prudence is
applauded, the council runs a real
risk of becoming seen as a meanspirited employer in its bid to
micro-manage every facet of
employee spending, which will
neither retain nor attract highcalibre staff.
Valuing and rewarding staff in
the ways that are common practice
in the modern private sector will
result in a far more effective and
efficient workforce.
These facts, Slater argued in
the District Court recently, were
sufficient to make him a
journalist and his blog a news
medium as defined in the
Evidence Act. He made the plea
in order to be able to claim a
protection provided by the act so
he would not have to reveal his
sources in a defamation action
that has been brought against
him. The judge rejected the
submission.
While Slater’s blog is miles
short of what most people would
think of as a responsible
medium that should be entitled
to the protection of the law, the
decision is almost certainly
wrong. The problem lies with
the Evidence Act, which was
passed when blogs were in their
infancy. Journalist and news
media are defined in the act
simply as those who disseminate
news and commentary, with no
other qualification.
The Law Commission has
proposed a solution: only those
news media that are subject to a
standards-setting body should be
able to claim any privileges
under the law. Under this idea, if
Whale Oil wanted the protection
he would have to sign up to such
a body and adhere to its rules.
He could, of course, choose to
stay outside and play the
renegade, but he could not then
claim the legal privileges.
Unfortunately, the
commission also wanted a new
body established by statute to do
the regulating. Neither the
media nor the Government
thought that was necessary and
the idea died.
That was throwing the baby
out with the bath water. A new
regulatory body is still not
necessary. A new definition of
news medium, to clarify who is
protected by the law, is.
I doubt the measures
announced so far will be greeted
with great glee by the staff and the
council may have to be prepared
for a further drop in the staff
engagement next year.
The council needs to compete
with the private sector for the best
people and supply the same
conditions a good employer does.
Cutting out the waste is
excellent, cutting the accepted
modern work practices will
ultimately deliver only decreased
morale, decreased services and
bigger problems.
LINDSAY JAMES
Bishopdale
Caring decision
Congratulations to the new city
council for its caring decision to
pass councillors’ CCHL directors’
fees to the Mayor’s Welfare Fund.
A fitting example of ‘‘public
service’’.
After a period of
embarrassment and vague disgust
that post-earthquake justice was
It was pleasing to read in the
report of the council deliberations
on restoration of the Town Hall
complex (Nov 28) that some
councillors felt that there was a
need to look at the bigger picture,
and also that a business case for
the revamped facility was needed.
Those actions are certainly
essential to give the wider public
and the arts groups an opportunity
to contribute to a Town Hall
business case; such opportunity
having been denied in the rush by
the previous council to meet an
arbitrary deadline.
There is also a need for the
council to consider a separate and
comparative business case for
development of an Arts Precinct,
like that envisaged before being
starved of funds through the
decision to renovate the whole
Town Hall complex. Arts groups
and professional theatre
consultants could then make a
useful contribution.
A business case relating to a
full-scale arts complex is likely to
be a cheaper option and thus a
better proposition for an
organisation short of funds. It
would also be more likely to
receive wider public acceptance.
The bigger picture would allow the
‘‘head to control the heart’’.
JIM CROOK
Avonhead
Ugly, brutalist
Could someone please explain to
my curious befuddled self why
people are being forced off their
red-zoned land and are having
their houses demolished, due to
land stability problems, while the
Christchurch City Council
continues to insist on repairing
that ugly, brutalist piece of socalled architecture called the
Town Hall.
I understand it has the same
land problems as red-zoned
properties.
Is this one rule for the plebs
while the council can make up its
own rules to suit its own agenda?
After all it’s only ratepayers’
money.
JOHNNY MORRIS
Beckenham
Home for CSO
Christopher Moore (Nov 29) is
right to say that we cannot afford
not to find our orchestra a home,
difficult as it may be to find
something suitable at present.
Every effort must be made to
persuade the organisations
responsible to fund this valuable
asset.
We may be in danger of taking
the CSO for granted.
Let’s hope that people subscribe
to the CSO’s 2014 concert season to
demonstrate support. It seems
absurd that the council is prepared
to fund a children’s paddling pool
to the tune of $750,000, but is blind
to the ramifications of ignoring
this valuable asset to the city.
KIRSTY BRODRICK
Strowan
New slogan
As Christchurch is no longer ‘‘The
Garden City’’ or ‘‘The City That
Shines’’, here’s a new slogan we
could possibly adopt: ‘‘Where
heritage is a thing of the past.’’
CHRIS WATKINS
Edgeware
IN A FEW WORDS
❯❯ In his letter in Saturday’s Press,
Roger Mathieson justifies a new
large city stadium by stating
Christchurch is a passionate rugby community. This is not borne
out by the recent ITM Cup semifinal in Christchurch. A beautiful
sunny afternoon, a panicked
rugby union virtually giving away
1000 tickets at $6 each, a game
between Canterbury and archrival Auckland, and they managed
to attract a crowd of 7000.
PETER SPILLER
❯❯ Brenda Hart (Nov 30) is not
alone in her experience with slow
mail delivery. I posted a birthday
card (70c postage) in Ashburton
on Wednesday for a birthday in
Christchurch on Thursday. It
arrived on Saturday. The postie
could have biked up and delivered
it within 24 hours.
ALICE McLAREN
❯❯ I had a letter posted to me on
Wednesday, November 27 from
another Christchurch address. I
received it on Saturday,
November 30. Is this the best NZ
Post can do? No wonder some of
us no longer post anything.
PETER BANENS
❯❯ The latest tabloid quandary.
Nigella – home maker or home
baker?
DAVID WHITE
biased and unfair, it is a relief to
recapture some of that pride in our
city we felt three years ago when
everyone pitched in willingly to
help the disadvantaged.
We thank our new mayor for
leading by example.
DAVID HINDIN
Riccarton
Ratepayers’ money
It is reported (Nov 29) that the
councillors’ additional payments
are to be paid into the mayor’s
relief fund.
Why is this necessary? Why do
they not leave the money in the
council and pay the needy from
there? By the way, who decides
who the needy are?
Apparently the councillors who
we vote for are happy with their
$99,000 per annum. If that is the
case, why are we paying a large
number of the council employees
more than $100,000?
If our elected representatives
are happy with what they receive
then shouldn’t the council staff be
as well? Think of all the
ratepayers’ money that would be
saved.
R LUCAS
Papanui
Stupid decisions
The new city council seems
determined to set a record for the
number of stupid decisions made
before its first Christmas in office.
Amongst the more egregious
has been the decision to oblige
councillors appointed to boards of
city-owned enterprises to forgo the
fees associated with those
positions. Even the most isolated
of us will know of the fate of the
directors of Lombard Finance,
who were found criminally liable
for the actions of subordinates. I
can’t imagine that anyone with the
necessary ability to avoid that sort
of risk would be willing to lend
their expertise for nothing, and
wouldn’t trust anyone who will.
The prudent course would have
been to change the arrangement
with CCHL so that there is no
requirement to appoint any
councillors, instead allowing a
council committee to appoint the
best available persons to achieve
the board structure desired.
Beating councillors with the
highly paid seat-polisher stick, and
council staff with the wastingratepayer-money stick is great
populist politics, but appallingly
bad management.
GRAEME COLES
Coalgate
been less than honest in advice
about water availability. The
water take in the very near future
will not be available 24/7 because
of low flows.
Irrespective of rules and
regulation put in place by
Environment Canterbury, big
overseas organisations will
demand of Government that they
take what water they want and the
final question becomes, ‘‘Manage
the resource or kill the rivers?’’
JOHN HODGSON
Patron, NZ Salmon Anglers Association
Christchurch
Salmon rivers
We, the New Zealand Salmon
Anglers Association (Inc), very
strongly object to overseas control
of our river waterways. The
finance minister states (The Press,
Nov 1) there are ‘‘few farms in
foreign hands’’. In Canterbury this
is a critical factor. The Ashley
River is now controlled by
American farm interests, and the
Rakaia to be controlled by Chinese
farm interests.
The unelected members of the
Overseas Investment Office have
ACCURACY
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we make mistakes, we will do what we can
to put it right, including running a
correction if necessary.
We encourage readers to tell us when they
believe we have made errors. Corrections
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have a complaint, email your concerns to
[email protected], or write to
Corrections, The Press, Private Bag 4722,
Christchurch Mail Centre, Christchurch
8140, or fax (03) 379-1531.
CONTACT US
Stop polluting
I’d like to ask if you can print this
letter asking all the factories in
Christchurch to stop polluting
rivers.
We can drink river water but if
we drink rubbishy water we would
get very sick. Animals like fish
and birds would get sick too.
Things that live in water could die.
MILIKA PERRY (aged 5)
South Brighton
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