In his new BWB Text Complacent Nation, Dr Gavin Ellis lays down the gauntlet to New Zealand: is our media as free as we think?
In Complacent Nation, Gavin argues that New Zealanders are too complacent about the continuing erosion of their right to know what government is doing on their behalf.
“We have become a society where we place insufficient value on democratic rights because we have taken them for granted for longer than is safe.”
He argues that political risk has become a primary consideration in whether official information requests will be met, and successive governments have allowed free speech rights to be overridden.
Gavin is a Senior Lecturer in Media, Film and Television, and former editor-in-chief of the New Zealand Herald. His career in journalism spanned more than 40 years and included periods as a political journalist and defence correspondent.
He draws on these decades of experience as a journalist and newspaper editor to chronicle these erosions, and argues that it is time for New Zealanders to reaffirm their democratic rights or risk further deterioration to freedom of speech and our civic knowledge.
Complacent Nation was published by Bridget Wiliams Books in August, and reached number 12 on the independent top 20 bestsellers for the week ending Saturday 27 August.
Gavin will be discussing these issues with Mihingarangi Forbes and Toby Manhire as part of the BWB Winter Series at 6pm on Thursday 22 September 2016 in the Old Government House Lecture Theatre.
Find out more about Complacent Nation
