TVNZ defends tsunami coverage

We began running half hourly updates on TV One from 6am, there were 12 bulletins before lunch.
At midday we put together an unscheduled half hour news bulletin.
We then continued with hourly updates for the rest of the afternoon.
The entire first break and much of the second break during the 6pm news hour was devoted to national and international coverage of the quake and tsunami.
TVNZ 7 covered the event extensively in their hourly bulletins from 6am as well.
Q+A interrupted its live political programme and crossed to the bunker at Parliament for an interview/update.  tvnz.co.nz covered the event from 3am and repeatedly beat stuff.co.nz and nzherald.co.nz with breaking news on the quake and its impact.
Numerous TVNZ journalists, producers, camera operators and senior news staff including One News Editor Paul Patrick and Senior Line Up Producer, Tati Urale came in to work the moment they heard about the quake. Tati arrived at 5am and worked through until 7pm Sunday night.  Some staff began arriving at TVNZ newsrooms around the country as early as 3am and worked through.
Many other staff phoned in throughout the day and offered to come in and work.
Brendon, if you or any of your readers would like to see the One News bulletin from Sunday night you can watch it on demand at tvnz.co.nz.
I would very much doubt that anyone would question TVNZ’s commitment to the story, after seeing it.
I hope this helps to clarify the confusion and gives some insight into just how dedicated our news guys are.
Kind regards
Andi Brotherston
News and Current Affairs Communications
TVNZ"

Brendon's reply
"Thanks Andi, no doubt some TVNZ staff were/are committed and the short news bulletins were good to have. Point is, many people would still have missed the info TVNZ did provided.(And you did far better than the others.) I watched bits of Q and A but but missed the Beehive bunker cross; a ticker tape on-screen would have been one way to get the crucial message across that coastal regions were potentially at some real risk. Yep, a special bulletin at midday and big round-up at six pm were great but it was all over by then. It wasn’t just a news event it was a Civil Defence alert."