Preface and Background
Preface
On 30 March 2007, New Zealand signed the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (hereafter referred to as 'the Convention' or 'the UNCRPD'). This was ratified by the New Zealand Government, on 26 September 2008. The Optional Protocol has not yet been ratified.
A significant aspect of the Convention is the monitoring process. Civil society, in particular persons with disabilities and their representative organizations, shall be involved and participate fully in the monitoring process
(UNCRPD Article 33-3). New Zealand Disabled People’s Organisations formed a governance-level steering group, called the New Zealand Convention Coalition Monitoring Group (hereafter referred to as the Convention Coalition), to undertake this process.
The Convention Coalition is a group of national Disabled People’s Organisations governed by disabled people (as defined in Article 33 of the Convention). The Convention Coalition comprises:
- Association of Blind Citizens of New Zealand
- Balance New Zealand
- Deaf Aotearoa New Zealand
- Deafblind (NZ) Inc.
- Disabled Persons Assembly (New Zealand) Inc.
- Ngā Hau e Whā
- Ngāti Kāpo o Aotearoa Inc.
- People First New Zealand Inc — Nga Tangata Tuatahi
Each year the Convention Coalition monitors various aspects of life, relating to the individual experiences of disabled New Zealanders, as measured against the articles of the Convention. Some analysis of New Zealand policies, programmes and laws relevant to these articles is also provided.
Background
This report on media monitoring outlines one half of the 2013 activities undertaken by the Convention Coalition in 2013.
Article 8 of the Convention encourages … all organs of the media to portray persons with disabilities in a manner consistent with the purpose of the present Convention
. This is reflected in the Independent Monitoring Mechanism of the Convention: Strategic Planning Outcomes 2013-2016 - Priority Four, monitoring the portrayal of disabled people in the media.
In monitoring the media portrayal of disabled people in Aotearoa New Zealand, the project team undertook the following subprojects:
- Sub-project one: media content analysis
- Sub-project two: consultation with media representatives – via conversations with representatives from a range of media perspectives
- Sub-project three: via three consultation meetings and both a paper-based an online survey.
The content analysis covered the major daily newspapers, television and radio, for the whole of 2012. This included both disability-specific programming, such as One-in-Five, broadcast on Sunday evenings on Radio New Zealand National, and Attitude TV, broadcast on Television One on Sunday mornings, as well as monitoring incidental news items and current affairs programmes for disability-related content during 2012. Two major news stories relating to disability issues were also examined: the Mojo Mathers parliamentary funding issue and the 2012 Paralympics. Media monitoring tools developed by Disability Rights Promotion International (DRPI), York University, Toronto, Canada, were utilized to facilitate this phase of the project.
In addition, New Zealand on Air practices and reports were examined, along with relevant Broadcasting Standards Authority information.
A series of twelve interviews with various media representatives, were held in Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin.
A paper-based and online survey was developed and consultation meetings with disabled people were held in Auckland and Dunedin, to gain insight into how disabled New Zealanders perceive their own portrayal by the media.
As a general principle every effort was made to ensure full participation by, and representation of, a cross-section of disabled people, throughout the various stages of the projects.