re_covering

Disheartened by one-dimensional coverage of gangs in Pākehā media, Moana Maniapoto and Hikurangi Jackson set about delving into the issue themselves. The Whakaata Māori mother-son duo's empathetic coverage captured the complexity and humanity of Aotearoa's gang landscape. Frustration over shallow media coverage of Aotearoa's gang landscape led Whakaata Māori colleagues and mother-son duo Moan...

Having joined the press gallery as its youngest member in 1980, Barry Soper is set to depart this year one of its veterans. Four decades and ten Prime Ministers on, he reflects on his career-shaping encounters with Nelson Mandela and his years holding power to account. A very fortunate case of mistaken identity in 1991 culminated in Barry Soper introducing then-NZ Prime Minister Jim Bolger to Nels...

As missiles rained down on Gaza in 2014, Mike McRoberts lobbied his 3 News bosses to get him to the frontline. The trauma of witnessing destruction on such an enormous scale stayed with him and shaped how he responds to tragedy. As missiles rained down over Gaza in 2014, Mike McRoberts lobbied his 3 News bosses to get him to the frontline of the war. For weeks, he found himself reporting from the...

An expose into Te Kohanga Reo Trust by Mihingarangi Forbes and Annabelle Lee-Mather led to their acrimonious exit from Māori Television. The duo bounced back to form an award-winning media company bringing indigenous storytelling to mainstream audiences. Having admired each other's work for years, Mihingarangi Forbes and Annabelle Lee-Mather then formed a powerful journalistic partnership at...

A surprise phone call handed Garth Bray a huge scoop as media scrambled to find a runaway Hone Harawira in Australia. His journey to Alice Springs and the fallout back home turned the spotlight on indigenous discrimination. In 2007, then-MP Hone Harawira absconded from a parliamentary trip to Australia. With journalists asking 'where's Hone?' a phone call out of the blue from the po...

Dismayed by how Māori were being portrayed in the media, Carmen Parahi nearly gave up on journalism for good. Instead, she channelled her frustration into a game-changing re-examination of indigenous news coverage. Carmen Parahi was at a career crossroads in 2020. While she still loved journalism, two decades of seeing Māori misrepresented and unfairly targeted in the media - not to mention the ra...

When covering the Syrian refugee crisis, Rachel Smalley translated overwhelming statistics of tragedy into stories of living, breathing people. Years later, Rachel still carries the grief of what she witnessed. Flying into Lebanon to report on the plight of Syrian refugees, Rachel Smalley felt the weight of the assignment. The stories she heard and retold struck a chord with New Zealanders who enc...

When Alison Mau launched a nationwide project to support victims of workplace sexual abuse and harassment in sharing their stories, critics wondered if the results would even be newsworthy. After nearly four years of dedicated reporting on sexual abuse and harassment in workplaces across New Zealand, Senior Journalist Alison Mau sensed she was in danger of treating survivors with less compassion i...

Cystic fibrosis is a death sentence for those who suffer with it. Encountering their experience, and the miracle drug that's just out of reach, changed Paddy Gower. It almost never became a story - but a simple email led Paddy Gower to connect with a community of New Zealanders impacted by the genetic condition cystic fibrosis. Cystic fibrosis is often diagnosed in newborns, affecting both the res...

What started out as a seemingly straightforward but tragic homicide story for investigative journalist Jared Savage turned into a heart-breaking exposé that changed his reporting and view of the world. What started as a straight-forward write up of a tragic murder deemed 'absolutely preventable' grew into an extensive exposé chronicling the victim's heartbreakingly harsh life...

In the 1960s and 70s, children as young as eight were placed in Porirua Psychiatric Hospital alongside the most mentally unwell adults. In 2005, Miriama Kamo told their story of startling abuse. In 2005, TVNZ journalist Miriama Kamo reported on historic abuses of children in state care at Porirua Psychiatric Hospital. A tragic picture emerged of a toxic culture that had developed amongst the staff...

As Jehan Casinader reported on the tragic suicide of a Christchurch teenager, Jehan's own mental health was privately crumbling as he'd recently begun experiencing suicidal thoughts. As Jehan Casinader listened to Harry McLean's mother reading one of the last things Harry ever wrote, Jehan realised he could have written every word himself. After a meteoric rise in his journalistic career, Jeh...

When breaking the news of horrific treatment of prisoners at Auckland Women's Prison, Guyon Espiner came face to face with a deeper story, of personal and cultural trauma. In 2020, RNZ investigative reporter Guyon Espiner began exploring the conditions within New Zealand prisons. He was shocked by what he uncovered. After breaking the news of startling abuses, including excessive use of pepper spr...

Joy Reid nearly gave up journalism while struggling with PTSD after covering the Christchurch earthquakes, but went on to her dream role as the Europe correspondent for TVNZ. As TVNZ's Europe correspondent, Joy Reid covered a royal wedding, the Paris riots and the ongoing saga of Brexit, but she very nearly missed out on her dream role. Within hours of the February 2011 earthquake, Joy was st...

Veteran journalist Paula Penfold has chosen to discuss her most recent documentary, Deleted, where Paula and her team at Stuff Circuit investigated the persecution of the Uyghur peoples in China. Paula Penfold has wept beside children's gravesites in Afghanistan, embraced a mother searching for her daughter in the wake of a typhoon in the Philippines, and relentlessly pursued justice for Tein...

There's always more to a news story than what you see, so throughout this series, Rev Frank Ritchie will be sitting down with journalists to unpack the stories that have shaped and changed them. Follow now, and share this podcast with your news junkie friends! Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details