Commonwealth editor slams 'racist' Waitangi media ban
Title -- 3927 NZ: Commonwealth editor slams 'racist' Waitangi media ban
Date -- 30 January 2003
Byline -- None
Origin -- Pacific Media Watch
Source -- TVNZ/NZ Herald/NZPA, 5/2/03
Copyright -- PMW
Status -- Unabridged
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COMMONWEALTH EDITOR SLAMS 'RACIST' WAITANGI MEDIA BAN
AUCKLAND (TVNZ/NZH/NZPA/Pacific Media Watch): A prominent New Zealand newspaper editor has condemned a tribal Maori ban on mainstream news media from covering the national Waitangi Day celebrations tomorrow at a traditional marae (meeting place) and some politicians have described the move as "racist".
New Zealand Herald editor-in-chief Gavin Ellis, who is currently Commonwealth Press Union chairman, told the New Zealand Press Association (NZPA) news agency he regarded the ban as a "direct and obvious threat to media freedom".
"The ceremony is part of the public programme for Waitangi Day. I regard it as a national event and if it is to remain a national event as opposed to a small, private ceremony for the marae and its inhabitants alone, then it should be and must be open to all media," he said.
But Dr Bruce Gregory, a former Labour MP and a kaumatua (elder) of the northern Ngapuhi tribe, defended the decision to ban Pakeha (non-Maori) media from Te Tii Marae at Waitangi in an interview on the Television NZ current affairs programme Holmes tonight.
He added that the ban would not be lifted.
Gregory blamed the ban, imposed by Ngapuhi leaders a few days ago, on what he claimed was the mainstream media's poor media coverage and understanding of Maori affairs, and concentration on the "negative" aspects of Waitangi protests.
Ellis said Gregory had cast a "racial dimension" by saying only Maori media were permitted to be at the ceremony.
"I don't accept that if Maori journalists in mainstream media are also banned that this has no racial overtones. Of course it does," he said.
National Party leader Bill English yesterday said banning Pakeha media from Te Tii Marae would pour petrol on the flames of unease about increasing division between Pakeha and Maori.
Prime Minister Helen Clark called the ban "an unfortunate precedent".
Former marae chairman Kingi Taurua yesterday told NZPA he did not agree with the ban, saying a marae was an "open place".
The day marks the signing of the 1840 Treaty of Waitangi by more than 500 Maori chiefs and the British colonial government.
British authorities saw the treaty as ceding sovereignty over New Zealand, but for Maori people the treaty had different significance. For more than a century there has been a struggle for a degree of Maori autonomy and control over resources.
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