New Zealand host resigns after international outcry (video)

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If you visit YouTube, you’ve no doubt come across the video posted last week of New Zealand TV morning show host Paul Henry mispronouncing the name of Indian government official Sheila Dikshit and laughing as he repeated the name several times.


The viral video created an international incident, with the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs demanding that the government-owned broadcaster TVNZ take action against Henry for his racist remarks. The Indian High Commissioner in New Zealand also delivered an official diplomatic protest. For her part Delhi Chief Minister Dikshit refused to comment. Her name, by the way, is properly pronounced dix’-it.

After days of public condemnation and calls for his firing, Henry announced Sunday that he was resigning his TV job.
 
“It is no longer practical in the current environment for me to do the job I was employed to do, and have so enjoyed doing. It is also difficult for TVNZ to get on with the business of being a first class broadcaster as long as I remain. I have apologised twice, and have meant every word. I again apologise to all those who were genuinely hurt by what I said. However, it is clear that things have now reached a point where my actions will have to speak louder than my words,” Henry said in his resignation statement. He noted that the incident had become such an issue that tabloid reporters were even staking out his elderly mother at her nursing home.