Media Training bouquet for Maritime NZ

Maritime NZ deserve congratulations for how they have handled the Rena disaster from a media training perspective. They were quick off the mark when the ship ran aground and began informing the media immediately about what had happened and what they were doing about it. There was some initial concern about the communication, but that was more because Transport Minister Steven Joyce and Prime Minister John Key kept out of the issue. From a media training point of view, they probably should have taken more interest early on. But Maritime NZ have consistantly kept the media and public informed from day one. They have now released 175 media statements on the disaster and have always had experts available to explain what was going on. While the grounding was not their fault, they have been responsible for dealing with it. Because of that, any media training specialist would encourage them to keep the media informed at all times to prevent them looking for other stories or getting their facts wrong. Maritime NZ have done this well. They deserve credit for this. Their PR people clearly understand media training fundamentals and put them to good use.