From the edition of Wednesday February
21. As always, spelling, punctuation, grammar and logic are exactly as printed
in the
Waikato Times.
Media merger
The appeal to the NZ Court of Appeal
by NZME (NZ Herald and Stuff) to reopen their attempt to allow the two
corporations to merge their media interests, is a threat to our democracy. This
merger, if it goes ahead, would allow most of the newspapers in this country to
be under one editorial direction with owners all being offshore.
Profit to shareholders would be the
news filter. Censorship by the oligarchy.
The arguments that will be put
forward to gain this monopoly is a “media plurality” and/or “media diversity”
which seems to mean that the corporations own most of the TV and radio stations
as well. So big is not better than democracy but it is better for the ruling
plutocracy. The loss of democracy to capitalism will exacerbate climate change
and is a threat to humanity let alone democracy. Good on the Commerce
Commission for closing the gate.
Peter H Wood
Thames