Stories by Colin Peacock

For years Māori journalism leaders warned a lack of training, investment and opportunities meant Māori people and perspectives were mostly missing in our media. But more effort and money than ever…

Mediawatch’s weekly catch-up with Lately on RNZ National. 

This week Colin Peacock talked to Bryan Crump about the fallout from broadcaster Charlotte Bellis’s media campaign against MIQ. Also…

It’s business as usual for the media again: all Covid, all the time with the whole country back in the red (traffic light). But even before Omicron inevitably broke through, anti-vaxxers and their…

The recent death of entrepreneur Jake Millar  - at the age of 26 - prompted an angry backlash against the media - over coverage of his failed venture Unfiltered. Some in business cited tall poppy…

RNZ’s previous plan to reach younger people collapsed in early 2020 after opposition to RNZ Concert cuts - and pushback from commercial broadcasters. This week RNZ fired up Tahi - a more modest effort…

New Zealand Herald publisher NZME has shaken up the business news scene with an agreement to buy subscription-based service BusinessDesk. It rewards a bold moved by the founder 13 years ago - and also…

The umbrella group representing locally-owned news media wants to negotiate with Facebook and Google for "fair payment” for the local journalism appearing on their services. Australian news media have…

Facebook’s all-powerful founder has rebooted his trillion-dollar company as ‘Meta’ and he’s planning for a new virtual ‘metaverse’ for us in five years. But the real world mess Facebook’s made in…

Tuesday’s Covid protest at Parliament was a spectacle that had to be covered, but reporters who did so were targeted by protesters - and not for the first time. Does coverage risk ramping up the…

A fresh analysis of Covid misinformation says it intensified after Delta arrived - and leading public figures and officials have “received specific targeting and abuse” online. But you don't have go…

The climate talks in Glasgow are the big global story right now - but it doesn't always feel like it in our news. A climate change reporter tells Mediawatch every journalist should now be one too -…

Radio broadcaster MediaWorks will launch a new talk radio network in early 2022 and has hired Newshub political editor Tova O’Brien for a new show which will shake up the morning news scene. 

Last weekend’s hastily-organised eight-hour Vaxathon TV extravaganza silenced most critics after a record number of jabs last weekend - but not all.  We ask the brains behind the broadcast - Bailey…

Big tech platforms have failed to tackle the misinformation and toxicity they spread - and their dominance of the market for digital media revenue is becoming increasingly obvious. Australia's…

This week's call that Auckland must linger longer in Level 3 - but with picnics and double bubbles - upset those who wanted more freedom, those who saw it as waving the white flag and those demanding…

Opposition parties’ plans for lockdown-free Covid management and re-opening our borders made headlines this week - kicked off former PM John Key last weekend. All of them dangled the prospect of free…

A new campaign is urging people with possible symptoms of cancer to get a diagnosis - and never mind the lockdown.  This week two media outlets claimed  'almost half of new cancers' went undetected…

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 -…

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…

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…

Mediawatch looks at how our media covered the struggle to contain the Delta variant -- and how media reports of Covid clusters in Auckland this week sparked racist responses and claims that the…

Unknown cyber-criminals sent stolen information to the media to pile on pressure to pay a ransom. RNZ subsequently aired a scoop sourced from it before a court ordered all media to dump the dodgy…

Mediawatch’s weekly catch-up with Lately. Colin Peacock talks to Karyn Hay about what the media made of an Olympics that turned out better than many expected in Tokyo - or did it? National Party…

The recent Groundswell protest put farmers’ grievances about the government’s environmental policies front and centre. Good timing for a new six-part documentary series exploring the dairy industry,…

A year ago, a trial of armed police teams was scrapped with opponents adopting the slogan ‘Arms Down.’ One year on, some in the media are now amplifying calls for arming all officers after the death…