LETTER TO THE EDITOR Reporting on issue disappointing

• Published date: 05 May 2022
• Publication title: Northland Age, The

What happened? Prior to publication, the aforementioned group “Northland Mooring Owners & Ratepayers” (NMO & RP), website www.russellcommonsense.com) had repeatedly provided the publisher with questions to which NRC should respond in order to satisfactorily clarify a controversial situation for the public

In addition, the background of the matter was described extensively in order to be able to do justice to the journalistic tasks, which have also been discussed in advance.

What are they? What is the task of responsible journalism? According to the general view the principles of truthfulness, accuracy, objectivity, impartiality, fairness, and public accountability apply to the acquisition of newsworthy information and its subsequent dissemination to the public. Have these principles in the given example been followed?

Well, let’s see: The article in question begins like this ...

“The group contacted the Northland Age to express a number of concerns in relation to Northland Regional Council’s management of marine pests in the region, particularly its introduction of the Marine Pathway Management Plan (MPMP) in 2017. The MPMP forms part of the Northland Regional Pest and Marine Pathway Management Plan, which according to NRC outlines the framework to ‘efficiently and effectively manage or eradicate specified organisms and/or marine pest pathways in Northland’.”

Does this high standard do justice to the circumstances after...