Low-key reveal of law to make big tech pay for news

Long-awaited legislation to force big tech platforms to pay New Zealand media for the news they disseminate online is now before Parliament. It could give our media with much-needed money in years to come if it becomes law and also fill a funding gap for the government at the same time. But neither the media or the government have made much of it. Long-awaited legislation to force big tech platforms to pay New Zealand media for the news they disseminate online is now before Parliament.It could give our media much-needed money in years to come if it becomes law and also fill a funding gap for the government at the same time. But neither the media or the government have made much of it. "Google and Meta. Are you putting the hard word on them to secure deals to pay for content? Are you going to legislate?" Newshub Nation host Simon Shepherd asked the broadcasting and media Minister Willie Jackson when he appeared on the show a year ago. He said if the big tech platforms did not do deals with New Zealand's news media companies to pay them for the news that they carry on their search services and social platforms online he was prepared to draft a law to make it happen by arbitration "They've legislated over in Australia and Canada . . . and I want to see some fairness. I want to see all these Kiwi news organisations looked after. These big players have the funding and the resourcing to be able to do that," he said. There was some movement after that from Google, which has now done deals with almost 50 local large and small news media outlets, though the sums involved are confidential commercial secrets. One year later, Jackson was back on Newshub Nation earlier this month and that legislation to force the issue was still not out. But he said it was imminent."It has taken too long, but the main point is it's in now. Any right thinking person or right thinking party would support this," Jackson said. Income from these deals could be a significant source of revenue for cash-strapped media. But the Fair Digital News Bargaining Bill wasn't launched with a ministerial media conference or even a media news release. And there wasn't an awful lot of interest in it either from the media. Reflecting on that and his weekly column Knightly News, former New Zealand Herald editor-in-chief Gavin Ellis said that might be because the bill will just die if the current government's not re-elected in two months' time. National Party broadcasting spokesperson Melissa Lee told Stuff this week governments should not be involved in the business of the Fourth Estate. …Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details