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New Zealand: Merger of two largest print media companies blocked by high court

By  |  December 19, 2017

The high court of New Zealand has rejected a proposed merger between the country’s two largest print media companies, ruling it would concentrate media ownership to such a degree that it threatened the country’s democracy.

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    In May the Commerce Commission rejected the plan to merge NZME, which owns the New Zealand Herald as well as numerous local papers and radio stations, and Fairfax Media, which owns the country’s most popular news website, Stuff, as well as three metropolitan daily newspapers.

    The Commission said it would have concentrated media ownership in the nation of 4.7 million people to an “unprecedented level” and threatened media plurality.

    The companies appealed but on Tuesday, December 19, the high court upheld the ruling.

    “We consider that it is appropriate to attribute material importance to maintaining media plurality,” Justice Robert Dobson said in a media release.

    “It can claim status as a fundamental value in a modern democratic society … The risk is clearly a meaningful one and, if it occurred, it would have major ramifications for the quality of New Zealand democracy.”

    Full Content: Radio New Zealand

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