Photo: RNZ / Cole Eastham-Farrelly
The Broadcasting Standards Authority has not upheld two complaints about broadcasts on RNZ National.
The first, on Nine to Noon on 8 October, 2024, marking one year since the 7 October 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel, included two interviews conducted by host Kathryn Ryan - one with BBC Middle East editor Sebastian Usher, and the other with Sally Stevenson, an emergency coordinator with Médecins Sans Frontières. The BSA found that listeners were alerted to alternative significant viewpoints during Usher's interview, and Stevenson's interview was clearly signalled as being from her perspective.
In addition, the audience could reasonably be expected to be aware of significant context and viewpoints from other media coverage. The BSA did not uphold complaints against Balance, Accuracy and Fairness.
The decision can be found here.
The BSA also considered a complaint against National's Saturday Morning broadcast, on 12 October, 2024. This was an interview of a UNICEF spokesperson and humanitarian worker about her experience living and working in Lebanon amid the ongoing Israel-Hamas- Hezbollah conflict. The BSA found the broadcast was clearly signalled as being from the interviewee's perspective and was not claiming nor intending to be a balanced examination of perspectives on the conflict.
Again, the BSA said RNZ's audience could reasonably be expected to be aware of significant context and viewpoints from other media coverage. It did not uphold the complaints against Balance, Accuracy and Fairness.
The decision can be found here
RNZ has initiated independent assessments of its editorial coverage, and the first looked at coverage of the Middle East since the 7 October attack. Its conclusion was that the decisions of the Media Council and Broadcasting Standards Authority gave no reason for concern that RNZ was acting outside its own policy, the Media Council Principles or the standards administered by the Broadcasting Standards Authority.
The report can be found here: RNZ : Editorial Reviews
