Bomb threat after radio host insults ‘darkie’ Annan

A TOP New Zealand radio presenter who made racist remarks about United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan was forced off the air yesterday by a bomb threat.

Police evacuated the Auckland radio studio of NewstalkZB 15 minutes before Paul Holmes’ breakfast news and talk show was due to end. For the next one-and-a-half hours, the station broadcast only music.

Local media reported a caller had phoned the station warning a bomb would go off if Holmes was not taken off the air.

Station manager Bill Francis declined to confirm that the threat involved a bomb. Auckland police spokeswoman Noreen Hegarty confirmed a threat had been made against a business in the building from which NewstalkZB operated. She would not identify the business.

Mr Holmes’ remarks about Mr Annan on a morning radio show on Wednesday stunned the nation, which prides itself on tolerance and was more shocking because it came from Mr Holmes, one of its most respected journalists.

In comments about the UN chief, he said: “we are not going to be told how to live by a Ghanaian.”

Holmes referred to Mr Annan as a “darkie” several times in the broadcast, and at one point called him a “cheeky darkie.” He later apologised and insisted he was not a racist.

“I should not have said what I did. It was tongue-in-cheek. It was the shock end of the spectrum; it was a bit mad probably,” Mr Holmes told listeners. “I am sorry if you were upset and I know some Maori people and Samoan people were upset and that really upsets me.”

Associate Maori affairs minister Tariana Turia, an indigenous Maori, said yesterday an apology did not excuse him insulting Mr Annan.

“People are really tired of high-profile people thinking that they can make racist comments and get away with it by just saying, ‘sorry I’m not normally a racist,’” she told National Radio. Prime minister Helen Clark distanced New Zealand from his words and listeners and race relations groups expressed outrage.

“That comment was completely unacceptable and demeaning of one of the world’s top civil servants,” Ms Clark said earlier this week. “I would not want New Zealand in any way to be associated with such comments.”

At the UN in New York, deputy spokeswoman Hua Jiang dismissed Mr Holmes’ outburst by saying: “it’s not worthy of comment.”

The Broadcasting Standards Authority, the media watchdog, received more than 50 complaints about the comments.