Dear Television New Zealand Limited,

Can you please provide the following information:
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All written correspondence between TVNZ staff & Jacinda Ardern &/or her representatives from 1st October 2021 until now.
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What we are interested in here - is finding out to what extent Jacinda Ardern controls, scripts and stages her media interviews with New Zealand's public broadcaster - and to what extent TVNZ is complicit in complying with projecting a staged narrative on her behalf.

Cheers - Micky Turner

Hi Brent,

I am interested to find out why Jacinda Ardern has done a number of recent interviews with TVNZ (including last Saturday and Monday) - but was never been asked about Three Waters.

It is a is a very controversial and topical issue. Maybe your political journalists have asked her some questions - but to be honest I doubt it.

Cheers - Micky

Thanks Brent,

Please forward the information I requested.

I am interested to see if or how the 'Prime Minister' avoids speaking about controversial issues and if TVNZ help keep those heated issues out of her spotlight.

As you have mentioned - there is more than enough coverage of Covid 19 related issues (7 hours a week).

Yours sincerely,

Micky Turner

Hi Brent,

I see this information was due on 6th December - how is it coming along?

Do you need more time?

Cheers - Micky

Thanks Brent,

I guess there could be match fixing happening via private phones - but will give your Political Editor the benefit of the doubt.

If it is genuinely the case that the Prime Minister isn't rigging her interviews - I think TVNZ has a culture of bias at all levels - because not asking the PM about Three Waters while it is topical - is Omission Journalism.

Obviously the factors which cause this are:
Personal Ideological Views
Ideological Views of Louder Voices within TVNZ (some people may feel bullied)
Funding
New Zealand's Political Landscape

TVNZ goes to great extremes to avoid topics which they think Maori with certain ideological views will find confronting or upsetting.

They are even prepared to change history in order to avoid upset - as was the case in this story about a museum display where Māori Studies academic Dr Ella Henry threw a bit of a hissy fit and said many of the aspects within the displays are inaccurate.

"There is literally no evidence to suggest that Māori lived in caves," she said:

https://www.1news.co.nz/2020/06/11/cante...

Will there literally is evidence Maori occupied caves. Both archeological evidence and oral history:

https://www.whakatane.com/see-and-do/te-...
https://teara.govt.nz/en/photograph/2331...
https://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarl...

TVNZ never corrected that story to ensure it was factually accurate. So we have a Maori Studies academic teaching a factually inaccurate Maori history at Auckland University of Technology and it goes completely unchallenged.

I find it unusual. But I think I'm the only one. It seems we are now living in The Line Experiment.

The same style of angled journalism (or ask no questions journalism) is applied to politics. Jacinda has even set her own ideology in stone via her NZonAir funding requirements - where journalists 'must' present a certain view or be denied funding.

Thanks for taking the time to look for the information in any case!

Cheers - Micky