NZ Press Council: Column on Maori was ‘Mean, Malicious & Infantile’

Published: Mon Apr 09 2018


The National Business Review, a weekly New Zealand newspaper, published a column that was "mean, malicious and infantile," the New Zealand Press Council ruled. The column, by former politician and writer Sir Bob Jones, called for a Maori Gratitude Day instead of Waitangi Day.

Maori are indigenous people in New Zealand. Waitangi Day is New Zealand’s national holiday and recognizes the "signing of the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840" when "representatives of the British Crown and over 500 Maori chiefs signed what is often considered to be New Zealand’s founding document," according to the New Zealand government website.

"As there are no full blooded Maoris in existence it indisputably follows that had it not been for migrants, mainly Brits, not a single Maori alive today… would have existed," Jones wrote, calling for "Maori to bring us breakfast in bed or weed our gardens, wash and polish our cars and so on, out of gratitude for existing" and for Maori to "tangibly express their gratitude for existing thanks to European immigration by a day’s voluntary labour for non-Maori folk."

Source: https://www.imediaethics.org/nz-press-council-column-maori-mean-malicious-infantile/
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