Level 2
119 Ghuznee Street
P O Box 9744
Wellington 6141
New Zealand
[NZ On Air request email]
www.nzonair.govt.nz
Tel: 04 382 9524
Fax: 04 382 9546
14 December 2023
C. Schock
fyi‐request‐24989‐[email address]
Tēnā koe
Official Information request and response
Thank you for your request under the Official Information Act (“OIA”) dated 1 December 2023.
You have requested:
1. What obligations, contractual or otherwise, with respect to the Treaty or presentations of
topics related to the Treaty were assigned to any person or organisation who received money
from the fund?
2. Please provide a copy of the standard contract entered into that governed receipt of money
from the fund. Please include any constraints or obligations that are assigned under this
contract that may appear in schedules or attachments to the standard contract.
3. Did anyone who applied for the fund (whether they received funds or not) complain about
constraints imposed on them related to editorial decisions? If so, how many complaints were
received and please provide a list of those complaints.
4. Were there any explicit limitations or constraints placed on fund recipients with respect to the
content they produced/published?
Please see below our response:
1. Under the three PIJF contracts templates (Project, Roles and Industry Development ), funding
recipients had an obligation to, where appropriate given the content being produced by the
recipient, use best endeavours to actively promote the principles of Partnership, Participation
and Active Protection under Te Tiriti o Waitangi acknowledging Māori as a Te Tiriti partner. As
you will see from the contract, this is in addition to other best endeavours obligations.
2. Please see the hyperlinks to the contracts at our response in Paragraph 1. These are the three
standard contracts that all funding recipients entered into. We would also note that any provision
of funding is governed by NZ On Air’s (the ‘Broadcasting Commission) legislative framework as
set out in the Broadcasting Act and the clear independence granted to NZ On Air and the editorial
protections granted to NZ On Air funding recipients.
Connecting and reflecting Aotearoa
This includes Section 42 of the Act that prohibits NZ On Air from giving any direction to any
funding recipient in respect of editorial content. This also includes Section 44 of the Act which
prohibits NZ On Air’s governing minister from giving a direction to NZ On Air in relation to cultural
matters (Section 44(1)) and also prohibits that Minister, or any other Minister, from providing
direction in respect of any content or any gathering or presentation of news or current affairs
content.
3. No applicant or recipient of PIJF funding made a complaint about any perceived or actual
constraint imposed on them in respect of editorial decisions.
We decline this part of your request under section 18(g) of the OIA as the information requested
is not held by NZ On Air and we have no grounds for believing that the information is held by
another department (for itself and for a departmental agency hosted by it or an
interdepartmental executive board serviced by it) or interdepartmental venture or Minister of
the Crown or organisation, or by a local authority.
4. Whilst NZ On Air does not see this requirement as a constraint or limitation, all funding recipients
(PIJF or otherwise) must be subject to the authority of the Broadcasting Standards Authority or
NZ Media Council. It is a legislative requirement (as per Section 40 of the Broadcasting Act) for all
NZ On Air funded content, in respect to PIJF, screen, music or any other such content, to be
required to meet either the standards in Section 4(1) of the Broadcasting Act or the principles of
the NZ Media Council.
For your information, funding provided by NZ On Air for all 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) will be published on the NZ On Air website shortly and will 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 Aotearoa
