Simon Tegg against Radio New Zealand

Radio New Zealand published an article on September 11, 2024, headlined Minister has 'constructive' meeting with group concerned about trans women in sport. This reported Sports Minister Chris Bishop’s meeting with the Save Women's Sport Australasia group (SWSA), who are concerned about trans women in sport, and argue principles of fairness and safety in sport have been disrespected by Sports New Zealand. It also reported comment by Gender Minorities Aotearoa (GMA) who describe SWSA as “anti-trans”. Simon Tegg said this was not true and misrepresented SWSA’s position. He believed RNZ should have given SWSA a right of reply.

In response RNZ said it was clear that SWSA was opposed to Sports New Zealand’s policy and in part of their response, GMA labelled that opposition as being anti-transgender. At some point a media company must draw a line under the number of approaches it makes to parties referred to in an article. In this instance, it was clear that SWSA were opposed to the government's policy on inclusion of transgender people in sport. It would therefore not be surprising for an organisation which supports transgender and diverse groups in society to describe such a position as being “anti” transgender.

This was an ongoing issue and RNZ’s audience had been exposed to extensive coverage of both “pro” and “anti” positions on transgenderism. The audience was well placed to evaluate the comments made.

On this occasion SWSA, who oppose the “pro-transgender” policy, were described by the GMA group as being “anti-transgender”. GMA had the right to express their view and RNZ’s reporting of that was not in breach of Media Council Principles.

RNZ said the story accurately reflected the position of both groups.

The Media Council believes both SWSA and GMA were given the opportunity to express their views. The story led off with the SWSA’s call for a review of guiding principles for the inclusion of trans-gender people in community sport.

GMA responded, saying SWSA were anti-trans.  They were entitled to express that opinion and RNZ was entitled to report it without going back to see if there was a rebuttal.

The Council notes there has been lengthy and ongoing debate on the issue of trans-gender participation in sport. This article was fair and balanced as it aired views from two sides of a continuing debate.

 Decision:  No grounds to proceed.