Journalists may be low in public esteem, but I reckon if those surveys asked respondents to rank student reporters, we’d fare even worse.

The general aura of suspicion that often greets journalists is frequently augmented by fear (of being wildly misquoted, I suppose) when our subject hears they’re talking to a student journalist.

Either that, or we’re patronised: patted on the head and asked, “is that all you’ve got?” with a smirk when we get to the end of our questions.
Read the rest of this article »

While New Zealand sleeps, most of the world is busy getting on with life.
Yet, it seems the New Zealand Herald’s foreign editor goes to bed at the same time as the rest of us.
How else could you explain the lack of acknowledgement in today’s world section that Russia had called a halt to the conflict with Georgia?
Read the rest of this article »

Today the government told New Zealanders how it’s going to spend their money over the next three years. Yet a murder trial led both major channels’ evening news bulletins.

They were the day’s “top stories”: the budget and the Kahui case. Presenters on both stations gave a token nod to the economics of the country before launching into the most salacious story of recent weeks.

Read the rest of this article »

How do you conduct a credible study? Well, if you’re looking into the effects of a company’s practices, it might look a little more kosher if that company doesn’t fund the research.

This story in today’s Herald reports on a Dow-funded study into the health effects of a Dow weed-killer factory in Taranaki.

The study concluded that “there is no evidence of increased cancer or disease” related to dioxin exposure at the factory.

But buried at the bottom of the story (page two on the web version), is the study leader’s acknowledgement that the research “incorrectly suggested that health effects had been studied”.

Read the rest of this article »

When Winston Peters holds up his little “No” placard, it makes me want to say “yes”. It’s a knee-jerk reaction, but I can’t help it.

So I say that this free trade deal with China is not the end of the world as we know it.

I can’t help thinking that more than a few of those who give Chinese human rights abuses as a reason not to sign were just using a new wagon for an old band. By which I mean ardent protectionists - who simply don’t want to open the country to a trade liberalisation agreement with China - used the recent protests in Tibet as a vehicle to make their point.
Read the rest of this article »

A while ago in Spanish class we got chatting with the teacher about Spanish attitudes towards the Royal Family. Some students remarked on the overwhelmingly positive coverage of the monarchs in gossip rags: the press gushes over them in a way completely foreign to the snarky tabloids in Britain, for example. Our teacher explained that it was in line with Spanish attitudes: that the public loves the royals and just wouldn’t tolerate criticism of them.

More specifically, as it turns out, it’s the police who won’t tolerate criticism – or even mickey-taking – of them. Recently a judge ordered all copies of the weekly satirical magazine El Jueves to be seized by police. The issue featured a tasteful cartoon of the Prince and Princess engaging in an act generally glossed over in fairy tales, with the Prince remarking that, due to a new initiative to pay couples to have children, if the Princess got pregnant, then this would be the closest he’d ever come to actually doing work. Read the rest of this article »

Hugo Chávez knows how to piss people off. He gets his kicks out of winding up Bush administration, implementing policies contrary to US interests and crossing himself in front of the UN General Assembly after calling Bush the Devil. It’s all rather humorous, and generally I’ve admired his courage for introducing many policies. Anti-yank sentiment can be a big vote winner, but it’s one for trapeze artists: most Latin American countries have a difficult job untangling themselves from Uncle Sam’s sticky – and less than altruistic – fingers.
But, as they say, it’s all fun and games till someone loses a broadcast licence.
Read the rest of this article »

The “11-M” hearing kicked off today: the trial for 29 people accused of involvement in Spain’s worst terrorist attack ever. On the 11^th of March 2004 a series of bombs went off in rush-hour commuter trains in different parts of Madrid, killing nearly 200 people and wounding ten times that many. The worst carnage occurred disconcertingly close to where I live; there is a placard outside my local swimming pool to remember the use of the complex as a makeshift emergency hospital on the morning of the attacks.

In the media excitement leading up to the trial the focus has centred on the logistics of the hearing and the veracity of a conspiracy theory linking local terrorists ETA with the bombings. Personally, I’m more concerned with the fairness of the trial itself. I know, I know: how much more pinko-bleeding-heart-liberal can you get than worrying about a bunch of terrorists getting a fair trial?

Read the rest of this article »

I had been quite impressed with the quantity of international news reported here in Spain, and I had thought that the turmoil in Tonga was quite a big deal. But had it not been for New Zealand news sources, I wouldn’t have known that anything unusual was going on there at all. It’s made me think about how current events are reported by newspapers around the world. Read the rest of this article »

I’ve come to find the clunk and whirr of closed circuit tv cameras turning to follow my movements as I walk to and from work quite reassuring. It seems sometimes like I’m stepping into Orwell’s Big Brother world every time I leave the house, and more than finding it frightening, I find it comforting.

Read the rest of this article »