15 Nov 2013

Iwi radio happy with Jackson's governance role

7:56 am on 15 November 2013

The iwi radio network says Maori broadcaster Willie Jackson will stay as the organisation's chair because he is in governance role not a presenter position.

Mr Jackson has stepped down from his Radio Waatea show Paakiwa after coming under fire for an interview he co-hosted on Radio Live.

The broadcaster and his co-host John Tamihere interviewed a young woman on their RadioLive show last week about a group of Auckland teenagers who boasted online about having sex with drunk, under-age girls.

The radio hosts' treatment of the caller led to the pair being taken off RadioLive until the end of the year.

However, he will remain chair of the iwi radio overseeing body, Te Whakaruruhau o nga Reo Irirangi Maori o Aotearoa, which held a quarterly hui on Wednesday.

Deputy chair Mike Kake said members discussed Willie Jackson's position with Te Whakaruruhau.

He said the meeting of executive members and station managers gave their full support for Mr Jackson to continue as chair because his role there is different to that of being a presenter at Radio Live.

Mr Kake said the group is not condoning what happened on RadioLive and he said both Mr Jackson and Mr Tamihere are remorseful for what happened.

He said Mr Jackson will carry on with dealing with governance matters, such as how station programmes are working.

Mr Kake said Whakaruruhau is the umbrella group that looks after 21 radio stations, and deals with issues such as programme formats.