Re: [Reminder] journalists meeting @ Mon, Jun 26 12pm - 1pm (1 hr)

 

Kia orana Charles,

 

Apologies for not responding earlier. Some urgent deadlines to attend to! I am at Mama's Cafe writing this (before heading down to Telecom to send it) and note your concerns. My own feeling regards the meeting venue is that we are journalists who ask other people to be transparent and accountable in their dealings - so why shouldn't we hold our meetings in the open? Do we really have anything to hide? If we're critical of our bosses, so what? I am the boss of myself, and I have got plenty to criticise!

 

However, I am just one person, and maybe that is an ideal situation we can work up to. Maybe there is an agreed press release we could put out each week. In the meantime, perhaps in terms of confidentiality, we should be looking for somewhere other than a cafe. What about the conference room at the Ministry of Culture? If we held the meeting at 11am then people could still get away for lunch.

 

It's great that George and Jeane are in support of this idea. We've all had our disagreements in the past, but I think we can work in good faith towards an industry group that represents the common interests of the industry and addresses some of its common issues.

 

The old media association (not CIJA) has about $1,500 sitting in an ANZ account. I have the withdrawal permission from Alex (one signatory) and Porora is the other. Perhaps if we got permission from the members of CIMA to use the funds from CIMA to re-establish CIJA (since journalists end up doing most of the NGO work anyway) with the understanding that we can help CIMA re-establish if there is any desire for that in the future.

 

All good,

 

jason

 

----- Original Message -----

From: Charles Pitt

To: avaiki nius

Sent: Wednesday, June 28, 2006 11:09 PM

Subject: Re: [Reminder] journalists meeting @ Mon, Jun 26 12pm - 1pm (1 hr)

Hello Jason-I'm still not keen on meeting at Mamas because it's too open and not conducive to open conversations. Too many other people can simply listen to what we are discussing.There are confidential matters we may want to raise-inhouse stuff. My feeling is we find somewhere more private. As to setting up the association this should be done quickly. I'm prepared to pay a membership fee so we can at least establish a bank account.Regards Charles Pitt. PS Both George and Jeane are agreeable that I should be involved with the group.