NZ Public Broadcaster Published Stories With Pro-Russian, Chinese, Palestinian Bias: Review

Local residents and rescuers stand amidst the rubble at the site of a heavily damaged residential building hit by a Russian missile in the town of Uman, Cherkasy region, Ukraine, on April 28, 2023. (Carlos Barria/Reuters)

An ongoing review of the public broadcaster, Radio New Zealand (RNZ), has not only discovered a pro-Russian slant in its articles but also evidence of pro-Beijing and pro-Palestinian bias.

RNZ chief executive, Paul Thompson, most recently apologised for publishing “pro-Kremlin garbage.”

Speaking to the RNZ’s own daily news program, Checkpoint, Thompson described it as a “serious breach of our editorial standards.”

“We’re feeling shocked and stunned and really, really challenged by this,” he said.

“We’ve let our audience down, and the Ukrainian community down, but I do need to make sure that we have a robust process because we’ve got enough challenges on our plate at the moment, I don’t want to compound that by getting ahead of a fair process.”

According to comments by the sub-editor responsible for the changes, similar edits have occurred at RNZ for years.

“I subbed several stories that way over the past number of years,” the journalist in question told Checkpoint.

“In fact, since I started RNZ ... I have done that for five years and nobody has tapped me on the shoulder and told me that I was doing anything wrong.”

RNZ has published a public list of stories that the external review has found problematic, so far involving 15 stories on the Russia-Ukraine conflict, four on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and three concerning Beijing-Taiwan tensions. The list is constantly updated.

A spokesperson for RNZ said over 300 stories have been reviewed to date.

“The external review will be led by the Board who will decide the terms of reference for that review, the areas to be covered and the external experts involved. This information will be confirmed as soon as possible and will be made public—as will the outcome of the review,” a spokesperson told The Epoch Times.

The Contentious Edits in RNZ Articles

One re-occurring edit made to multiple Reuters stories is the addition of references to a “U.S.-backed coup in 2014,” as well as mentions of “neo-Nazi military units” fighting for Ukraine.

These changes have since been removed in at least eight articles.

Meanwhile, in another Reuters news story about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the Hamas terrorist group was referred to as the “elected government of the blockaded Gaza strip,” which has been changed.

Additionally, the description of the terrorist groups Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and Fatah was edited from “militant” to “resistance.” This has also been reverted.

There were also significant changes in at least three Reuters stories reporting on tensions between Taiwan and Beijing.

For example, one change removed references saying Taiwan was democratically governed.

In another instance, the original story opened with the sentence: “Taiwan will not allow ‘repeated provocations’ from China, the island’s defence minister said on Tuesday, as China’s foreign minister said Taiwan was the ‘first red line’ that must not be crossed in Sino-U.S. relations.”

But this was edited to have a pro-Beijing slant: “China’s foreign minister is warning Taiwan is the ‘first red line’ that must not be crossed in Sino-U.S. relations, as sources claim President Tsai Ing-wen plans to meet U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.”

The word “strongly” was also removed from the sentence: “Taiwan’s government strongly disputes China’s territorial claims.”

A Blow to Public Confidence, Chairman Says

The chair of RNZ’s board, Jim Mather, said the actions of the staff member have eroded public confidence, saying there was work to be done to regain the public’s trust.

“I certainly have judgement about the systems that we have in place, and I am going to await the findings of the review in terms of the judgement of management around the whole issue,” he told RNZ.

“But clearly at this point our systems are not adequate, or proven not to be adequate emphatically ... it should raise questions about: Why was this not identified at an earlier point in time?”

Thompson confirmed that going forward, RNZ will now put wire stories through two editors instead of just one.

Following calls for a wider parliamentary inquiry in response to this incident, Prime Minister Chris Hipkins said he was not sure this was the best way to “preserve RNZ’s editorial independence.”

“Radio New Zealand is publicly funded, but it’s also editorially independent. That editorial independence is incredibly important,” he told reporters.

“State-funded media that answers to the government of the day, in terms of their editorial decisions, is not independent.”

In response to questions about whether this signalled Russian infiltration in the state broadcaster, Hipkins said nothing had been raised to him personally.

“I understand that the minister of broadcasting has previously received at least one complaint, which he has referred to Radio New Zealand,” he said.

ACT Leader David Seymour said this incident reflected badly not only on RNZ but on New Zealand’s media overall.

“For our state broadcaster to publish material that included Russian, Palestinian, and Chinese propaganda is appalling. New Zealanders should be able to trust our state broadcaster to be totally and utterly impartial,” he said.

“New Zealanders’ trust in the media has been steadily declining over many years, and this episode will undermine that trust further.”