To Radio New Zealand

Formal Complaint to Radio New Zealand from Alan William Preston

https://www.rnz.co.nz/about/formalcomplaints

15th of December 2020

Kia ora.

                 You need to add Principle 13 :  Omission

 You will respond to me saying that there are no grounds for my complaint.

 I've just sent the following to MediaWatch - but they've never mentioned the case either..

The decision about whether to extradite award-winning journalist Julian Assange to the United States of America to face charges of espionage is set for the 4th of January 2021.

New Zealanders will be on holiday and will remain blissfully oblivious.

'Our' mainstream media have succeeded in depriving the public of New Zealand ( and indeed the whole world ) of any discussion about the implications this case has, and parliament has just gone into recess for the summer period so the opportunity we might have had to demand that parliament make a diplomatic plea for his release through the British and American Embassies has been lost.

The trial of Julian Assange is THE most important our civilization has EVER had to face: It will decide whether we want to allow atrocities and injustices to be committed on our behalf - with those committing or ordering them having absolute impunity from law , or whether we support the freedom for whistle-blowers and investigative journalists to provide us with the truth to ensure that power can be held to account.

Our media is ( must surely be ? ) made up of intelligent thinking world-wise people so their refusal to give this issue the attention it deserves leaves us with the impression that they are subject to some very strong prohibition on drawing attention to it. True, Radio New Zealand recently did a good interview with an Australian academic 'Julian Assange and the Future of the Press' - but that was, as with the previous piece about the impending trial - only after I had cornered them on their refusal to report, most latterly with an Official Information Act request asking for documents relating to any decisions about reporting on Julian Assange or ( information received from ) Wikileaks. There has been no follow up or discussion on any of Radio New Zealand's many forums.

The vast majority of New Zealanders remain dangerously oblivious to this case and to the implications it has for our democracy and especially for our media and their role in holding those with power to account.

What is ACTUALLY going on to prevent New Zealand's state-owned media organisations from reporting on this case that is likely to have a chilling effect on your own profession ?

Alan William Preston.

Mangawhai, Northland

New Zealand.

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:

Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.

At the going down of the sun and in the morning,

We will remember them.