Those who have read the election pages in last week’s issue of the Kapiti News will have noticed that only about half the candidates were given profile statements with a photo. That’s because to get one, you had to buy an advertisement of similar proportion.
Regional Councillor Nigel Wilson, one of the candidates who declined to accept such extortion, said he rang its editor David Haxton and told him that it was the type of thing you would expect from Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe. 🙂
The opposition Kapiti Observer paper did give space to all candidates, even if the ‘sound bites’ were severely edited down to the point where you could be forgiven for wondering what differences there are between them.
Most undemocratic, and potentially very misleading for voters. I have contacted the editor and requested all ‘missing ‘ candidates be invited to submit their profile and photograph for publication as soon as possible. Or it could be called unbalanced and biased reporting in a formal complaint to the Press council, I eagerly await his response.