The breaking news no-one wanted to hear this week upped the pressure on the government and officials to make more information public - and more quickly. Meanwhile critics have cast doubt on whether we can trust what we're told - and the media find themselves in the middle of political claims and counter claims during an election campaign.
The New Zealand Herald's front page reports the first full day back under Level 3 lockdown. Photo: PHOTO / RNZ Mediawatch
At 8.15pm last Tuesday night Newstalk ZB host Marcus Lush read out a listener’s text claiming Counties Manukau District Health Board staff had been told by email that fresh cases of community transmission would soon be confirmed.
Shortly before 9pm the Prime Minister’s office alerted media that the PM and the director-general of health would hold a press conference within half an hour.
It was pretty clear to reporters and editors the news would not be good. And so it proved.
From a standing start that night, the response from the media was comprehensive.
The announcement was covered live on TV and radio, and streamed and live-blogged online. Critical information about Level 2 and 3 restrictions - and where and when they would apply - was reliably and rapidly relayed.
But the media also wanted to report as much as possible about how the outbreak happened - and who might be to blame.
Political rivals also upped the ante.
'Interesting facts'
NZ First leader Winston Peters muddied the waters by telling Australia's ABC News he believed the outbreak came from a breach at a quarantine facility.
"You don't always find out from your officials," Peters said, claiming his source was a "very reliable" journalist - though journalists don't usually sit on stories like that if they can back them up - and when they can't, they don't usually blab to government ministers.
“What do these guys know that they’re not telling us?” National Party deputy leader Gerry Brownlee asked in a provocative statement earlier on 5 August.
Then last Wednesday, he hinted darkly that the government and officials may have been withholding information about the return of community transmission and he urged the media to investigate what he called “a series of interesting facts.“
After heavy criticism for fueling paranoia, he said he got into “a bad spot” with this and insisted he really did not want to boost the credibility of flourishing conspiracy theories - of which there is no shortage right now.
In a combative Morning Report interview, National Party leader Judith Collins said she just wanted more solid information out as soon as possible for the public’s sake.
In this, she has common ground with the media.
What some journalists have called ‘government by daily press conference’ has frustrated reporters throughout the Covid-19 crisis.
Most of them now work in a deadline-less continuous news environment. Many times they have had to wait until the next day for answers to specific questions - and by then, versions of the information they were trying to verify - true or false - had spread far and wide online anyway.
During Friday’s lunchtime daily briefing, Health Minister Chris Hipkins was asked repeatedly about reported cases of community transmission - and rumours of them on social media. One was based on a Facebook post by a Wellington restaurant stating that a person had visited who later tested positive for Covid-19.
Later in the day, the Ministry of Health confirmed an asymptomatic Japanese traveler who spent some time in Wellington had visited restaurant - and other places - before leaving the country.
Similar thing with The Ramen Shop. I've spoken to a staff member at the shop who says Regional Public Health contacted them about a Covid-19 case. But RPH won't answer questions and directed me to MOH. In the meantime people are panicking. Reluctant to publish until more clarity. https://t.co/dG35WaVQa9
— Georgina Campbell (@GeorgeKCampbell) August 14, 2020
The minister told reporters he spent time the previous day “chasing down rumours” of cases in Wellington which turned out not to be true.
“When we do our 1pm daily briefings we make sure that everything that goes out is absolutely backed up by facts and evidence so if people are looking for an authoritative source of truth, that’s it," he told reporters - and the public watching and listening in.
But that claim was undermined at that same press conference when Dr Bloomfield wrongly referred to a case at one Auckland high school which knew nothing of the suggestion.
"Surely they fact check things before they give it to Dr Ashley Bloomfield to read on national TV," principal Michael Williams told Newshub, after making his feelings known forcefully on Facebook.
"That wasn't an issue with contact tracing - that was an issue with the preparation for the media briefing, and incorrect information was included in that," Chiris Hipkins told Newshub Nation.
"Ultimately, I think the director-general and his team were given wrong speech notes for that, and that's very unfortunate. When we release information at one o'clock, it's got to be absolutely rigid and robust."
But he did not explain why Dr Bloomfield's speech notes were wrong in the first place.
Gaps at the border
After Tuesday's shock news, unprecedented numbers of tests and a record volume of contract tracing were completed.
But Newshub investigations editor Michael Morrah revealed on Thursday that almost two thirds of people working on quarantine and border control had yet to be tested for Covid-19.
At the subsequent daily briefing, the minister and Dr Bloomfield expressed “disappointment” while political rivals condemned it a huge failure that had compromised the nation’s health and economy - and which could prove to be a factor in the return of community transmission.
In the New Zealand Herald political reporter Derek Cheng said the Health Ministry told media in June that it was including a "regular health check and asymptomatic testing of all border-facing workers" in its testing strategy.
"For three weeks, the Herald has asked the ministry repeatedly for this testing breakdown with no response," he reported on Friday.
During Saturday’s daily briefing, one reporter pointed out that some reports and rumours "spread like wildfire” online for hours before they are officially addressed in a subsequent press conference. He asked if the minister would consider releasing updates more often than once a day.
Chris Hipkins replied that would be unhelpful as officials needed time to determine the full details about new cases and how they may be linked to other cases. He insisted simply publicising news cases and their locations as soon as possible was not in the public interest.
He also said when people are advised by contact tracing teams - as they are when the system is working as it should - there is nothing to stop them posting details on social media.
The ominous picture TVNZ used to alert One News Now browsers the PM had some imminent that would be bad. Photo: Screenshot / TVNZ
Another factor for officials and government is that any errors will be painted as evidence of incompetence by political critics - especially at election campaign time.
While daily briefings can be an ordeal for the health minster and his officials, the visibility and presence of mind they give the prime minister has been an asset during the election campaign.
New Zealand Herald political editor Audrey Young pointed out on Thursday that while Judith Collins had to cancel her planned campaign launch this weekend, the Labour Party's leader "beams into the living rooms of the nation playing a cross between Florence Nightingale and Winston Churchill".
But that can cut both ways.
When ominous news of the imminent press conference came out on Tuesday night, several of the news sites that covered it put up stills of a sombre-looking Jacinda Ardern as a placeholder.
Being the public face of a Covid campaign going well cannot hurt the image of a candidate - but being the face of bad news might.
