{"id":371,"date":"2020-11-29T22:23:16","date_gmt":"2020-11-29T22:23:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.radiofree.org\/?p=128730"},"modified":"2020-11-29T22:23:16","modified_gmt":"2020-11-29T22:23:16","slug":"our-truth-ta-matou-pono-stuff-introduces-new-treaty-of-waitangi-based-charter-following-historic-apology","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2020\/11\/29\/our-truth-ta-matou-pono-stuff-introduces-new-treaty-of-waitangi-based-charter-following-historic-apology\/","title":{"rendered":"Our Truth, T\u0101 M\u0101tou Pono: Stuff introduces new Treaty of Waitangi based charter following historic apology"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"pf-content\">\n<p><em>By <a href=\"https:\/\/www.stuff.co.nz\/authors\/katarina-williams\">Katarina Williams<\/a>, a senior reporter of Stuff<br \/>\n<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Stuff<\/em> has introduced a new company charter with Te Tiriti o Waitangi at its core, after a major internal investigation uncovered evidence of racism and marginalisation against M\u0101ori.<\/p>\n<p>The media organisation issued an historic public apology today following the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.stuff.co.nz\/pou-tiaki\/our-truth\">Our Truth, T\u0101 M\u0101tou Pono<\/a> investigation which saw around 20 Stuff journalists scrutinise the company\u2019s portrayal and representation of M\u0101ori from its early editions to now.<\/p>\n<p>The findings unearthed numerous examples of journalism practices denying M\u0101ori an equitable voice in Aotearoa.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.stuff.co.nz\/pou-tiaki\/our-truth\"><strong>READ MORE:<\/strong> Pou Tiaki: Stuff&#8217;s day of reckoning<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/asiapacificreport.nz\/2020\/09\/14\/carmen-parahi-the-fourth-estate-needs-to-be-aware-of-how-it-supports-inequity\/\">Carmen Parahi: The Fourth Estate needs to be aware of how it supports inequity<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><em>Stuff<\/em> chief executive Sinead Boucher said it was imperative the company reckoned with its past, but denied the investigation was an exercise in political correctness or being \u201cwoke\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t buy into that at all. If you think the job of the news media, in our company and others, is to hold the powerful to account, well, we are the powerful.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe really have had an enormous impact in shaping public thought in New Zealand and societal norms, not just reflecting them, and I think it is only fitting that a progressive company can pause and have a look at itself,\u201d Boucher said.<\/p>\n<p>She acknowledged the presence of racism and unconscious bias in the digital and print products over the company\u2019s 163-year history, and too often a monocultural approach had been taken that prioritise P\u0101keh\u0101 worldviews.<\/p>\n<p>Boucher was adamant <em>Stuff<\/em> could not hold others to account without facing up to its own past as a first step towards repairing the harm the company\u2019s history has caused its relationship with M\u0101ori.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;When the project started, we didn\u2019t know what we were going to find. They didn\u2019t start off with a particular agenda &#8230; we just thought it was really critical that if we were going to embed the Treaty principles into our charter, that we need to do that examination and be up for whatever difficult finding might come out of it.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAfter doing a deep examination &#8230; the finding was that over time, there had been many instances of where you could say that the work that our papers produced could have perpetuated negative stereotypes or misconceptions against M\u0101ori.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_52826\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-52826\" style=\"width: 680px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-52826\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Stuff&#8217;s owner and chief executive Sinead Boucher\u00a0\u00a0 &#8230; &#8220;If you think the job of the news media, in our company and others, is to hold the powerful to account, well, we are the powerful.&#8221; Image: Ross Giblin\/Stuff<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Boucher said she \u201cstruggled to think of a more important piece of work that our newsroom has produced\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.stuff.co.nz\/pou-tiaki\/our-truth\/300168692\/stuffs-charter-a-brave-new-era-for-nzs-largest-media-company\">new charter lays out <em>Stuff\u2019<\/em>s commitment<\/a> to \u201credressing wrongs and to doing better in future ways that will help foster trust in our work, deeper relationships with M\u0101ori and better representation of contemporary Aotearoa.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Boucher also acknowledged M\u0101ori were under-represented in <em>Stuff<\/em> newsrooms, something the company \u201cdefinitely [had] to address and redress\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>In May, Boucher took control of <em>Stuff<\/em> from its previous Australian owners, Nine \u2013 the shift into New Zealand ownership provides the company with the opportunity to reset and reposition the business, and its value system, she said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOur people advocated for the Treaty principles of partnership, participation and protection to be embedded in our new strategy.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe <em>Stuff<\/em> Charter sets down a pou tiaki (guard post) to ensure we guard against this kind of inequity in our reporting and business practices in the future.<\/p>\n<p>\u201dOur wish is to be a trusted partner for tangata whenua for generations to come,\u201d Boucher said.<\/p>\n<p><em>This article was first published by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.stuff.co.nz\/pou-tiaki\/our-truth\/123533668\/our-truth-t-mtou-pono-stuff-introduces-new-treaty-of-waitangi-based-charter-following-historic-apology\">Stuff here<\/a>. It has been republished with permission.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n<p class=\"syndicated-attribution\">This post was originally published on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.radiofree.org\/2020\/11\/29\/our-truth-ta-matou-pono-stuff-introduces-new-treaty-of-waitangi-based-charter-following-historic-apology\/\">Radio Free<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Katarina Williams, a senior reporter of Stuff Stuff has introduced a new company charter with Te Tiriti o Waitangi at its core, after a major internal investigation\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":41,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[250,251,6,7,252,116,253,254,94,255,4,12,256,257,258],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/41"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=371"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":372,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371\/revisions\/372"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=371"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=371"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=371"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}