HAS RNZ GONE OFF THE RAILS?

Radio New Zealand might be concerned that copy was edited without the knowledge of editorial management, but it is also concerned competing views slipped though the editorial net. RNZ's claim to be an independent public broadcaster has been questioned before but, this time, its role in defending the status quo has become clearer. Rather than encouraging a diversity of opinions, it has decided its job is to build and push certain narratives.

THERE WAS a point, perhaps with the election of the Labour Government in 2017, that RNZ management decided that the job of the public broadcaster was not to reflect the diversity of opinion within the country. Rather its new role was to lead the way on issues that were coming to the fore under Labour. Its job, it decided, was to build and push narratives.

So not only did RNZ embrace the ideology of identity politics that was sweeping through the liberal elite under the thoroughly middle-class Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, it also took positions on other issues that were of concern to what is often referred to as the 'professional managerial class'. That meant competing views were summarily dismissed. They got airtime or were published on the RNZ website only in order to criticise them. A woman's rights group like Speak Up for Women suddenly found itself being labelled by RNZ as an 'anti-trans group', which it isn't. And, more disturbingly, the violence and intimidation that women received on that fateful day at Albert Park in Auckland was downplayed by RNZ.

Similarly, those of us who have argued that 'decolonisation' is all about positioning the Maori elite within a capitalist system that continues to impact negatively on working class Maori, have found our views dismissed as 'reactionary' or even 'racist' by RNZ.  

Intentionally or not, the freestyling sub-editing work of a RNZ journalist has highlighted again that RNZ is not the independent public broadcaster that it claims to be. While RNZ might be concerned how a journalist got away with altering copy for several months without anyone knowing about it, what really sticks in its claw is that competing views got through the editorial net. 

The petulance displayed by the chief executive of RNZ suggests that, under his reign, RNZ remains closed to competing views that challenge the establishment-approved narratives. When it comes to Ukraine, rather than letting RNZ's audience judge opposing views for themselves, Paul Thompson has dismissed them as 'Kremlin garbage'. Under Thompson's rule RNZ's current affairs coverage has been neutered to the level of excruciating blandness served up by The Panel, where Wallace Chapman and his guests mutually appreciate each other for an hour. It is not riveting radio. 

It is now come to the light that the suspended journalist altered copy in order to portray the struggle of the Palestinian people more favourably than is normally the case.

David Cumin, co-director of the Israel Institute of New Zealand, has predictably weighed into the issue. He has suggested that the edits 'pointed in the direction of a particular anti-Western ideology'.  

He has also gone as far as to suggest the edits amount to 'tacit support for terror'. This is the same David Cumin who continues to excuse and whitewash Israel's continued violent oppression of the Palestinian people. Cumin is a Zionist and he has displayed little enthusiasm for the protests that have rocked Israel itself opposing the far-right government of Benjamin Netanyahu. 

Although he is a council member of the Free Speech Union he continues to encourage the suppression of views that support the struggle of the Palestinian people. He considers them to be a threat to the interests of the Israeli Government.

While the NZ Herald has described the Israel Institute of New Zealand as an 'independent think tank' - which is how the Institute also describes itself - it is, in reality, a lobby group that promotes the interests of the Israeli government.

The National Chair of the Palestinian Solidarity Network Aotearoa (PSNA), John Minto, has commented:

'There is cruel irony in reports that Radio New Zealand has edited foreign news reports in favour of Palestinians. It’s ironic because Radio New Zealand reporting is consistently and systematically biased against Palestinians – in large part because RNZ relies significantly on BBC reporting which is methodically dreadful.

'PSNA has raised this time and again with RNZ Head of News, Richard Sutherland, but to no obvious effect. Whatever tweaks may have been made to some news reports it can’t erase the ongoing RNZ misreporting from the Middle East that comes courtesy of the BBC'.

Note: RNZ has appointed a group of 'experts' to carry out an investigation over how so-called pro-Russian edits were inserted into international stories online.

A member of the panel is Linda Clark.  A former TVNZ reporter and a former host of RNZ's Nine to Noon show, she is often referred to as 'the lawyer to the Labour Party'. 

After JK Rowling tweeted her support for Posie Parker and the women attacked and intimidated at Albert Park, Linda Clark tweeted to the celebrated Harry Potter author: 

'Please don’t use your huge platform to mischaracterise what happened in NZ. She came, she appeared at a shoddily organised rally, she got shouted down and had tomato juice tipped on her. Then she caught the first flight home. End of.'