Remember when Radio NZ News used to be concerned with the facts, presented in a relatively balanced and impartial way? Well, it appears not any more. In last month’s update we touched on the vexed issue of our public-service radio broadcaster happily accepting claims based on oral history as fact while choosing to ignore documented eye witness accounts of history - a modus operandi becoming increasingly common as it promotes a new history of ‘Aotearoa’ in various programmes.

In response to claims by Tom Roa, associate professor at Waikato University, as reported on Radio NZ during the news item: ‘Māori leaders say acts of terror nothing new in New Zealand’, a member of Democracy Action sent an email to Radio NZ with the following message: