Radio NZ bans Wintec editor-in-residence

Wintec’s editor-in-residence Martyn “Bomber” Bradbury has been banned from a Radio New Zealand programme following comments he made during a discussion on Afternoons with Jim Mora.

Towards the end of a show last week Bradbury read a piece of writing adapted from his recent blogs. The audio has since been removed from Radio New Zealand’s website.

“I made a fairly acerbic assertion and commentary that John Key’s free hour on Radio Live was just appalling and it’s not what we expect from our media. The day that we were downgraded he wanted to talk about his cat and Coronation Street. That’s a joke,” Bradbury said.

The next morning he received a call from Radio New Zealand telling him he was banned from the station because his criticism of John Key went too far and had breached editorial policy.

Mr Bradbury said he was not told which policies he had breached but he believes it to be a “terrible over-reaction from the management at Radio New Zealand”.

However, a Radio New Zealand spokesman said Mr Bradbury is only banned from appearing on The Panel and he is free to feature on any other of their shows.

“Mr Bradbury’s invitation to take part in The Panel discussion segment was withdrawn because his personal comments about the Prime Minister were deemed to be in breach of Radio New Zealand’s editorial requirements for fairness and balance.  One of his comments was regarded as being potentially defamatory.”

But Bradbury told the Waikato Independent he was one of few left-wing commentators featured on the panel and banning him meant there is less balance to the show.

“You get this feeling that I’m being judged by standards which the others aren’t being judged by. Certainly a lot of right-wing commentators have gone just as far if not further than I have but none of them have been banned,” Bradbury said.

He said it was a bad week for the media with “John Key hosting his own hour of radio minus any questions whatsoever; you then had the Speaker of The House banning the New Zealand Herald for 10 days from Parliament buildings; and I get dumped for criticising the Prime Minister.”

“If any of those three things had happened when Helen Clark was the Prime Minister there would be hellfire and damnation all around, it would be the most outrageous thing in the world. This government does it and no one really does anything.”

Mr Bradbury said he was surprised when his Twitter and Facebook accounts were bombarded with messages of support after the decision was first announced on Media Watch, a show on Radio New Zealand, on Sunday.