Mediawatch Radio New Zealand

As the lockdown in Auckland lengthened, the exposure of one couple’s rule-breaking prompted a predictably intense pile-on. Ironically, that actually helped to keep their names out of the headlines - briefly - and it also fired up long-running arguments about the right to know, privilege and fairness.  

Mediawatch looks at how the media zeroed in on our social cohesion this week - as the current lockdown in Auckland became the longest we've had so far. Also: Mediawatch talks to the BBC's Peter Taylor, a reporter with 50 years of experience reporting terrorism and violence -- and how it can be overcome...

Few journalists on the planet have more experience of reporting terrorism than the BBC’s Peter Taylor. He has spent half a century covering Northern Ireland’s ‘Troubles - a consequence of the partition of Ireland 100 years ago. He’s risked his own life meeting face-to-face with terrorists  - and also the terrorised and those working for peace.

Mediawatch's weekly catch-up with Bryan Crump on Nights. This week Hayden Donnell talked to Bryan about the media facing accusations that they're undermining the Covid response by airing the claims of critics of the elimination strategy. 

Twenty years after the 9/11 attacks prompted the US to invade Afghanistan, the Taliban announced they’ve taken the whole country again this week. Journalists who remain there are at risk in spite of assurances media freedom will be respected. Will proper journalism be possible under the Taliban? 

In the midst of a bid to move away from its troubled internal culture, MediaWorks hired new people for news and talk radio this week. But the sudden retirement of controversial veteran host Peter Williams was the talking point for listeners  - making it a rough ride for his successor when the news broke.