Level 2
119 Ghuznee Street
P O Box 9744
Wel ington 6141
New Zealand
[NZ On Air request email]
www.nzonair.govt.nz
Tel: 04 382 9524
Fax: 04 382 9546
18 August 2022
Luke
By email: [FYI request #19639 email]
Tēnā koe Luke
Official Information request and response
Thank you for your request under the Official Information Act (“OIA”) which we received on 13 June
2022. On 12 July 2022, NZ On Air extended the timeframe of this response by a further 30 working days,
with the updated response date being 22 August 2022.
You have requested:
1. A funding breakdown of al organisations that have received funding from the Public Interest
Journalism Fund (PIJF) to date.
2. Please list al online news articles that have received funding from the PIJF, how much funding
was applied for, and how much funding each specific article has received.
3. A list of al projects that have received funding from the PIJF, how much funding was applied for,
and how much each specific project has received.
4. A list of al organisations who have applied for, but were denied funding under the PIJF. Please
also provide the funding sought.
5. A list of al organisations who have applied for, and successful y received funding under the PIJF.
Please also provide the funding granted.
6. Please release al successful funding applications made by organisations to the PIJF, and their
reasons for why their nominated projects fulfil a public interest service that would otherwise have
been at risk.
Connecting and reflecting our nation
Please see below our response to your request:
1. Al PIJF funding decisions are made public and can be found via our website. Funding decisions
are made public at the completion of each round and the media releases for each include the
fol owing:
15 July 2022 - First funding injection for Public Interest Journalism boosts reporting and training
across the motu
20 September 2021 - September 2021 Funding Decisions
6 December 2021 - Boost for diverse media content and roles in latest journalism funding
8 December 2021 - December 2021 Funding Decisions
2. Content funding is for public interest journalism roles and projects, as opposed to specific articles
and as such there is no document containing al online news articles and how much funding a
specific article has received or how much a specific article cost.
This is also in part due to our data set not being complete, as some funded publishers are yet to
be ful y brought into our tracking system, which itself is stil a trial system. We decline this part of
your request based on Section 18(e) of the OIA, as the document al eged to contain the
information requested does not exist.
However, while we are unable to meet your request in ful due to this data set not being
complete, we can provide:
a spreadsheet that details online PIJF-funded articles that have been tracked as part
of our monitoring system.
This spreadsheet details the title of each tracked online article and its respective host website. As
noted above, this is an incomplete data set and does not currently capture al online content
funded under the PIJF. It should also be noted this spreadsheet does not cover print, app, social
media, linear television, and radio content and therefore does not give a ful picture of the
amount of content produced by funded roles and projects. We decline to release information
regarding readership figures as they relate to each article under the Section 9(2)(b)(i) of the Act.
Further to this, we can also provide the fol owing attached document:
A spreadsheet detailing each successful project and roles funding application, their
contracted content outcomes and respective publishing platform.
Please note that al funded content is also required to fol ow our accreditation guidelines.
3. Please refer to the answer above for Paragraph 1.
4. NZ On Air does not release detail on declined applications due to the intel ectual property
contained and the commercial sensitivity of projects. This is for several reasons, such as enabling
applicants to continue to develop and ‘shop’ their project, preventing projects from being copied,
and enabling projects to apply for funding to other organisations without the stigma of a decline
from NZ On Air. We decline this part of your request under Section 9(2)(b) of the OIA.
5. Please refer to the answer above in Paragraph 1.
Connecting and reflecting our nation
6. Due to the intel ectual property contained and commercial sensitivity of the projects, we do not
release details of funded application that are stil in progress. We decline this part of your
request under section 9(2)(b) of the OIA.
Regarding your request for the “reasons for why nominated projects fulfil a public interest
service” please find attached:
Copies of funding recommendation papers submitted to the NZ On Air Staff
Investment Committee on 28 June 2021, 6 September 2021 and 17 November 2021
Copies of funding recommendation papers submitted to the NZ On Air Board on 13 -
14 July 2021, 21 - 22 September 2021 and 30 November – 1 December 2021
Regarding applications that have been completed as at the date of your request, please find
attached:
Copies of six successful funding proposals submitted to the Public Interest Journalism
Fund that have been completed at the date of your request.
Please note that the fol owing redactions have been made to al attachments referred to in this
paragraph:
section 9(2)(a) of the OIA to protect the privacy of natural persons
section 9(2)(b) of the OIA to protect information where the making available of the
information—
o (i) would disclose a trade secret; or
o (i ) would be likely unreasonably to prejudice the commercial position of the
person who supplied or who is the subject of the information.
For your information, funding provided by NZ On Air for al successful projects is searchable on our
website. You can also sign up to receive our regular industry newsletter via our website.
You have the right to refer this response to the Ombudsman if you are dissatisfied with it. More
information on how to do this is here. NZ On Air proactively releases information in accordance with the
Government’s commitment to the Open Government Partnership National Action Plan. This includes
publishing responses to requests for information under the OIA. Please note that this response (with your
name removed) wil be published on the NZ On Air website shortly and wil remain on our website for 12
months.
Thank you for your interest in our work.
Yours sincerely
Sharon Kerry
HEAD OF CORPORATE SERVICES
Connecting and reflecting our nation
