Media Release 7 December 2022
Right to Life is disappointed at the deafening silence of State owned Radio NZ and TVNZ who chose to refuse to report on the National March for Life. The nation’s twenty-one daily newspapers also suppressed any reporting on the National March for Life.
There were only two major media organisations, Newshub and Prime TV that provided any coverage of this major newsworthy event. They also gave equal coverage to a handful of angry demonstrators who loudly proclaimed “the right of women to kill their children before they are born”.
The media, the fourth estate have an important role to play in being our watchdog and our advocate for a just society, they alone can hold the legislature and the judiciary to account. Why are they not a powerful voice opposing the violence of abortion against women and against our unborn, why have they chosen to be silent? Their silence undermines the trust that the community should have in the media.
Nearly 3,000 men women and children marched from Civic Square to Parliament on Saturday 3 December. They were a voice for the voiceless unborn children who are innocent victims of the government’s war against women and their precious children. It was a call for the government to end the State sanctioned and funded violence against women and their unborn. The killing each year of more than 13,000 innocent and defenceless unborn children is a violation of human rights, a crime against humanity and an intolerable burden on the conscience of our nation.
All the news media in New Zealand were aware of the National March for Life as they had been given advice of the March in November by the organisers of the March for Life.
Why then, the general chilling and frightening silence of the media in defending women and the unborn? The government and Parliament believes wrongly that the debate on abortion is settled and that those who oppose the violence of abortion should be ignored and silenced.
The government have invested $55 million in the media to promote “responsible journalism”. Right to Life believes that the government expects “responsible journalism” to ignore and suppress all news of the pro-life movement in its defence of women and the unborn and to promote the killing of the unborn as health care.
Radio NZ reported at length in the news on the day of the March on a demonstration by 200 local Chinese in Auckland opposed to China’s zero Covid policy. Why did RNZ not consider it newsworthy to report on the nearly 3,000 protesting at the March for Life on the violence inflicted on New Zealand women and their unborn?
The silence of the media will not deter us from continuing to seek justice for women and their unborn, the weakest and most defenceless members of our human family, we will not be silenced, we will not rest until our unborn are recognised as human beings endowed by their Creator with an inalienable right to life.
Ken Orr,
Spokesperson,
Right to Life New Zealand Inc.