Justice minister won’t reveal exactly what the public broadcaster’s board chair said, while police minister doubles down on concerns about bias
A senior Cabinet minister has confirmed the board chair of public broadcaster TVNZ discussed concerns about its journalists’ reporting of crime statistics, in a private call days before the outlet ran a follow-up story to outline the Government’s successes.
Labour leader Chris Hipkins says any board member who was involved in the decision to run the additional story should resign immediately, given the need for editorial independence.
On Wednesday morning, Newsroom reported on 1News’ highly unusual decision to run a belated story covering the fall in the number of victims of violent crime over the past two years as announced by the Government last week.
On the day of the announcement, 1News senior political correspondent Benedict Collins had run a separate news story instead focusing on a rise in the number of members in gangs to total more than the nation’s police – a decision that sparked a concerted outcry from government ministers and MPs.
Newstalk ZB’s Barry Soper later claimed a “senior, high-profile TVNZ manager” had spoken to Police Minister Mark Mitchell and apologised over the bulletin’s coverage.
The decision to run a follow-up piece – and the potential involvement of TVNZ board members in those editorial processes – has now sparked concerns about potential political pressure.
Speaking to media on Wednesday afternoon, Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith revealed he had received a call from a TVNZ board member – who he later confirmed to be its chair Andrew Barclay – over the weekend where the story had “come up in passing”.
He said Barclay had proactively raised the reporting, but would not reveal exactly what had been said.
Asked how he had responded, Goldsmith initially said: “I don’t recall the exact discussion, other than to say that I had had the issue raised with me, that was all.”
However, the minister later said he had not responded in any way to Barclay’s remarks, adding: “I just said, ‘Well that’s not for me to discuss,’ and then we moved on to other issues.”
He would not comment on whether it was appropriate for the board chair to have raised concerns about editorial coverage of government policies, saying it was a matter for the board to discuss.
Mitchell stood by his social media posts and said he had “major concerns” about TVNZ’s reporting.
“When you look at the amount of people that actually read that post and commented on it, and most of the comments were highlighting the fact that there’s a loss of trust in TVNZ … because the way they report – it appears biased.
“I’m not asking for any breaks or special treatment, but … like I said in the call that I had, there’s a real opportunity here in New Zealand when you see what’s happening globally and the disinformation and the misinformation out there, is that people want good journalism that’s balanced – they want to be able to trust it.”
He had not spoken to any members of TVNZ’s board or senior leadership team about the coverage, but said he would need to check whether anyone from his office had done so.
Mitchell confirmed he had told Soper about his call with Sherman (without naming her), having previously told Newstalk ZB during an interview of the apology he had received from the broadcaster.
Asked whether he was comfortable with where things had landed after the second 1News story went to air, Mitchell responded: “Not at all – we’ll just have to wait and see, I mean it’s up to them …
“One of the things that was raised with me was around social licence and the recognition of how important that is, and I agree, and we’re all in the same boat.
“I guess at the end of the day, they will be judged by the public and the Kiwis that want to see balanced reporting.”
Hipkins said he was concerned about the suggestion that TVNZ’s board had placed pressure on 1News journalists to run a follow-up piece on the crime statistics.
“If any member of the TVNZ board has been involved in TVNZ’s decision to run an additional story last night, TVNZ needs to be very upfront with the New Zealand public about that, and that member of the board needs to resign immediately.”
Hipkins said it was legitimate for politicians to criticise media coverage, but it would be “a big problem” if any ministers went to the RNZ or TVNZ boards to exert influence.
