Politics / Media & Technology

Public interest journalism gets $55 million boost

12:23 pm on 12 February 2021

The government is pumping $55 million into public interest journalism over the next three years.

Photo: RNZ /Dom Thomas

Minister for Broadcasting and Media, Kris Faafoi, launched the fund in Dunedin on Friday.

NZ On Air will administer the contestable funding, which will support projects that fill a public interest service and may otherwise be at risk of not produced without the fund's support.

In the current financial year $10 million will be available, increasing to $25m in 2021/22 and $20m the following year.

Faafoi said grassroots public-interest journalism had been in decline and had struggled for the past decade or more.