Dear Clare Curran,

Firstly, congratulations on your new portfolios.

As background to my OIA, this request follows the RNZ news report on 10 November 2017 (http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/3...) relating to former Broadcasting Minister Hon Craig Foss’s admirable initiative in 2014 to make around 20,000 titles from the TVNZ Archive freely available online within three years.

The news report noted that Nga Taonga has only made 24 titles freely available online in 3 years, even though they have received 8 million dollars of public money specifically ring fenced for the TVNZ Archive.

The news report goes on to say that “the then broadcasting minister Craig Foss has told RNZ he could not recall a government promise to digitise 20,000 titles by 2017”

As it stands, there seems to be very little openness or transparency as to how the “20,000 titles” statement came to be made by the Minister in 2014. The figure can clearly be found in a ministerial press release (https://www.beehive.govt.nz/release/crow...), news stories from the time and in his speech at the launch of Nga Taonga in mid 2014.

I therefore request from you as the current Minister for Broadcasting:

All documents that the former Minister for Broadcasting Hon Craig Foss or his office received, authored or sent that relate to the TVNZ Archive preservation and online access initiative.

Yours faithfully,

Joss J.