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PaulNorris

  • Journalist
  • Executive
Paul-Norris-profile-image.jpg

After 19 years working in news and current affairs at the BBC, Paul Norris returned to New Zealand in 1987 to lead TVNZ’s news and current affairs team during a period of major change (including the launch of hit show Holmes). Nine years later he left to head the NZ Broadcasting School in Christchurch. A widely respected and passionate advocate for public broadcasting, Norris died in February 2014.

Screenography

1996 Executive Producer Series
This Week Next Week
1984 - 1988 Producer Series
Newsnight (UK)
1980 - 2026 Producer Series

Biography

Paul Norris grew up initially in Timaru and then, following the return of his Anglican priest father from World War II, in Christchurch. After completing an MA in History at Canterbury University, he read Philosophy, Politics and Economics at Oxford, unaware at the time that it marked the first stage of “a very long OE” in the United Kingdom.

“There needs to be some kind of balance between the commercial arena and programmes that are not driven by the ratings. [P]rogrammes that are driven by social or cultural needs, programmes that stimulate the mind, programmes that inform, educate and often inspire.”

Paul Norris writing on the need for public broadcasting, in the NZ Herald, 24 April 2012