Praise in NZ for Maria Ressa's "inspirational speech."Archived Message
Posted by Morrissey on December 13, 2021, 11:54 pm
Nine to Noon, RNZ National, Tuesday 14 December 2021, 11:50 a.m.
There have been some truly excruciating "media analysts" on RNZ National. There's New Zealand's version of Andrew Marr, one Colin Peacock, who claimed on air that Tony Blair and Alistair Campbell had "made some good points" [1]when they attacked the BBC's handling of the Iraq invasion, and conducted a toe-curlingly awful interview with Lyse Doucet some years after that. [2]
There's Gavin Ellis, who as editor of the New Zealand Herald fired his cartoonist Malcolm Evans for criticizing the Israeli destruction of Jenin in 2002. [3] Possibly Ellis might be forgiven for folding after being harassed and brow-beaten by Auckland's rabid Israel lobby; what we cannot forgive him for is the fact he was the dullest commentator to ever sit behind a microphone at RNZ. Bar none.
Other "media commentators" paid by NZ taxpayers for their five cents worth have ranged from the morally depraved (Jonathan Freedland), the mad (Dame Ann Leslie) [4] to the bewildered (Jeremy Rose). [5]
The media expert today was Andrew Holden, from Christchurch. He's an Australian and he used to edit the Melbourne Age.
The first eight minutes of today's discussion are taken up with analysis of the latest radio ratings survey, and the financial performance of Sky TV. And then....
KATHRYN RYAN:[chirpily] And finally, two journalists have just received the Nobel Peace Prize! There was a wonderful speech from one of them, the woman.
ANDREW HOLDEN: Yes that was Maria Ressa from the Philippines. She started her speech by saying: "I stand before you, a representative of every journalist around the world who is forced to sacrifice so much to hold the line, to stay true to our values and mission: to bring you the truth and hold power to account." It was an inspirational speech, and I advise people to watch it on YouTube. And of course at the same time the High Court in London found that Julian Assange could be extradited to the United States to face charges of espionage.
KATHRYN RYAN: There was a Russian journalist as well, wasn't there.
ANDREW HOLDEN: Yes, Dmitry Muratov.
KATHRYN RYAN: We all know what happens to journalists [guffaw] in Russia. I remember that high profile one, that woman who died a few years ago.
ANDREW HOLDEN: Yes, it's easy for those of us working in a benign journalistic environment to forget just how dangerous it is for journalists in these countries. Just in the last week, a colleague of Maria Ressa's in the Philippines was murdered.