Opposing New Zealand’s press restrictions on the coverage of Brenton Tarrant’s trial is not some abstract free speech argument, it’s about reining in a media that thinks it knows what’s best for the public.
The country’s five major media corporations responsible for the coverage of the proceedings against the man accused of killing 50 people during the March 15 shootings at two Christchurch mosques, have signed a voluntary “indefinite” protocol “to limit any coverage of statements that actively champion white supremacist or terrorist ideology.”
This has been widely received as an unequivocally virtuous gesture – “not giving the extremist a platform” is being treated as a win for ethics over typical media salaciousness.
The New Zealand media evidently holds the public in such dubious regard that it believes that we could not be trusted to make up our own minds on the merits of an ideology propagated by a mentally unbalanced fitness trainer who committed one of the least-justifiable acts of violence against innocents in recent memory.
But then the disrespect for the public was evident in the existence of this protocol in the first place. By signing it, the media companies are essentially saying “We know that people are interested in the details of the trial, and that any outlet that publishes them will get more clicks and views, so let’s form a cartel to NOT give people what they want.”
All apparently for a good cause. But even if the “no notoriety” approach were proven to be effective, it is a misunderstanding of the role of journalism in an open society. Yes, newspapers and broadcasters can crusade, sway and frame the debate, but their foremost public function is to provide accurate information. That they are proudly vouching in exact words “not to report” suggests that they see themselves as our unbidden filters and guardians working in unison, a function the media performs in totalitarian states.
The editors will argue that unlike Stalin’s Russia, at least they are not receiving orders from above. Though it is notable how closely the pact hews to the words of the center-left Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, who set the ball rolling by urging everyone not to name the perpetrator, an edict the much of the press followed until many realized that Tarrant was acquiring the mystique of an unpersoned Leon Trotsky after his escape.
The aftermath of atrocities is a honeypot for short-sighted do-gooders buzzing about looking to do something, but also opportunist politicians to realize their long-harbored ambitions. Remember 9/11. No one wants to be seen arguing on behalf of terrorists.