TAKING A BITE OUT OF NEWSMAKERS – ON MAORI TELEVISION

MONDAY APRIL 26 2010

A potent mix of interviews, opinion and satire marks the return of WILLIE JACKSON’S NEWSBITES – on Maori Television every Friday at 10.00 PM from April 30.

The straight-talking broadcaster is back after last year’s successful pilot to take on the newsmakers and get to the heart of the issues that concern Maori and all New Zealanders. Each episode features a major interview with someone at the centre of current events, plus ‘The Brown Table’ – a lively forum for expert and entertaining commentators to read the spin and analyse the state that we are in.

“WILLIE JACKSON’S NEWSBITES is a chance put those issues that Kiwis are really talking about up for robust discussion,” says Willie Jackson. “Not just the stuff the media and the spin doctors says we should care about, but the stuff real New Zealanders care about and which affect their lives.”

Putting a Maori perspective on the mainstream news is more important that ever, Jackson believes. “I want to give everyone, not just Maori, the chance to debate what’s happening in our country with race relations and politics, especially now the Maori Party is playing such an important role.”

As well as interviews and views, WILLIE JACKSON’S NEWSBITES also takes a satirical squint at life in Aotearoa in Toi Iti’s popular and cutting edge ‘Half-Caste Broadcast’. Each week Iti tries to make sense of being a bi-cultural New Zealander straddling the cultural divide. In the first episode, he examines some shocking social statistics and asks the question some would prefer to ignore: does this country have a Pakeha problem?

Turn on, tune in and smarten up with WILLIE JACKSON’S NEWSBITES – every Friday at 10.00 PM on Maori Television.

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For images and media information, register with the Maori Television media centre at http://media.maoritelevision.com or contact Communications Manager, Vanessa Horan, on +64 9 539 7159, mobile +64 21 928 007 or email vanessa.horan@maoritelevision.com.