Geoff Neal against Radio New Zealand

Geoff Neal complained about 34 stories on the subject of Māori Wards published by Radio New Zealand in August and September 2024.

The stories reported on the deliberations of local authorities around the country in response to Government legislation requiring 45 councils with Māori wards to either scrap them from 2025 or hold a binding poll to determine whether they will be used in the 2028 and 2031 elections.

This complaint follows a similar complaint from Mr Neal about nine stories published by TVNZ, many of which were sourced from RNZ.

As with the TVNZ complaint, Mr Neal argued RNZ’s coverage did not reflect the opinion of the majority of New Zealand who were against the Wards, as reported in opinion polls and earlier local authority referendums.  RNZ’s coverage had not achieved balance over time, and it was therefore inaccurate and politically biased, said Mr Neal.

RNZ responded saying it was satisfied that it has published a range of views on this issue during this period. Articles reported positions for and against the Māori Wards Bill. While Mr Neal would have preferred RNZ to report poll results on Māori Wards, it was under no obligation to report those results and that did not mean its coverage was in breach of Media Council Principles.

Many of the stories mentioned in the complaint were reports of what councils were doing to meet provisions of the legislation. RNZ noted it was a tenet of its news service to report matters which were new and of public interest, which had occurred in the lead up to and since the passing of the legislation.

The Media Council notes this is essentially the same complaint that Mr Neal made against TVNZ (Case no: 3564) and the Council believes there is no need to repeat all the points made in that ruling.

Most of the stories referred to were reports of councils meeting to decide whether they wanted to retain Wards. No case has been made to demonstrate that the coverage of any of those meetings was inaccurate, unfair or unbalanced.

This is a very long running issue and opinions for and against Māori Wards have been widely reported. It has not been shown that this group of stories covering a particular period in the debate is proof that coverage has not been balanced over time.

Decision:  No grounds to proceed.