Geoff Neal against Radio New Zealand

Radio New Zealand published a story on October 10, 2024, headed Concern over low percentage of Māori speaking te reo.

It said 4.28 percent of Kiwis could hold a conversation in te reo, but advocates were concerned that as a percentage of the population, the growth of Māori speakers of te reo had slowed.

Māori educator Rawiri Wright commented at length and at one point was quoted as saying: "Māori as a population, we are almost a million people now..."

Geoff Neal complained this was incorrect. He cited the 2023 Census figures which reported 366,015 people identified as Māori only, 887,493 as Māori or part Māori and 978,246 ticked being of Māori descent.

Referring to the last figure Mr Neal said this was “a deeply flawed statistic” because it was subjective and not empirical data.  The person being quoted should have said “ALMOST one million New Zealander's report having Māori DESCENT.”

He said the one million figure was misleading and had been politically weaponised by Māori activists, left-leaning political parties and the media. He complained RNZ had breached Media Council Principles (1) Accuracy, Fairness and Balance and (4) Comment and Fact.

RNZ responded that the “almost a million people” comment were the reported comments of Mr Wright. His use of the term "Māori as a population” referencing those who reported being of Māori descent is a reasonable one in the circumstances. Readers would understand that the reported figures were not those of pure Māori descent.

The Media Council suggests Mr Neal may wish to raise his concerns about the validity of Census data with the Statistics Department, as it is not the Council’s job to consider a claim that a statistic is flawed.

The Council considers complaints on matters relating to journalistic ethics, in this case the principal requirement to be accurate, fair and balanced. Census data is based on what people report about themselves.  When 978,246 people identified themselves as being of Māori descent it was not wrong for somebody to take that figure and comment “we are almost a million people now.”

The Council does not believe it was misleading to report that.

Decision:  No grounds to proceed.