McClay not Mathers

I blogged yesterday a report from Select Committee News that Mojo Mathers suggested to  Radio NZ at the Commerce Select Committee that they consider charging international internet users of the Radio NZ website. I commented:

This is a very bad idea. The Internet is global and any attempts to charge people based on their location is flawed. It means New Zealanders who are travelling overseas would not be able to access Radio NZ for free. It means expats would be locked off from it. It also would encourage spoofing of IP addresses.

Mojo Mathers has said that she did not suggest that, in fact she asked no questions to Radio NZ. Select Committee News has confirmed they made an error, and the question came from Committee Chair Todd McClay.

Just so people understand, Select Committee News is not published by the Office of the Clerk. It is a private publication that summarises select committee hearings, and puts out a newsletter you can subscribe to. They also provide a subject matter search, so you can get alerts just for your area of interest.

I’ve found SCN to be a hugely valuable resource, and normally highly accurate. The error in this case was seemingly caused by name plates being in front of the wrong MPs, and of course with 35 new MPs, it takes a while for reporters to recognise them all.

I have updated the original post.

UPDATE: Todd McClay has texted:

My question was in relation to possible charges for online content not their normal broadcasters. Ie they have some great series, programmes etc that whilst they should remain free to NZers, as with BBC, could be on a fee paying basis for foreigners. Just as you can buy BBC dvds, or programmes from overseas radio and news services. They have huge amounts of content which is not even digitized yet. 

Good to have the clarification.