The revelation late last week that a sub-editor at RNZ had made inappropriate edits to several wire service stories relating to the Ukraine-Russia war was an unwelcome shock to the national radio broadcaster.<\/p>\n
Chief Executive Paul Thompson\u00a0moved quickly on Monday<\/a>\u00a0to apologise for the \u201cserious breach\u201d of the organisation\u2019s editorial standards which he described as \u201creally, really disappointing\u201d.<\/p>\n Thompson told Checkpoint,\u00a0\u201cI would point out that it is confined to one area,\u201d<\/a>\u00a0noting that the audit had not yet found examples of inappropriate edits outside of Ukraine-Russia stories. Yet within 24 hours of that interview, the scope of the audit had dramatically expanded as further examples came to light on social media of RNZ publishing international wire stories relating to other highly contentious topics with \u201cone-sided\u201d edits.<\/p>\n By the time the Board of RNZ met on Tuesday night to discuss the terms of the review, it had\u00a0identified 22 stories<\/a>\u00a0with suspect amendments relating to China-US tensions, China-Taiwan relations, the Israel-Palestine conflict, the Syrian civil war and North Korean missile launches. All highly charged geopolitical situations.<\/p>\n However, already it is clear that there are additional stories relating to the Israel-Palestine conflict, amongst other topics, which are yet to be added to RNZ\u2019s list. At least another five Israeli stories (9 in total) have been identified after a rudimentary search in the limited time available, all of which illustrate a very strong anti-Israeli sentiment.<\/p>\n In an article from August 2022, a Reuters\u00a0article<\/a>\u00a0reported \u201cNearly 600 Palestinian rockets\u201d which the RNZ\u00a0article<\/a>\u00a0halved to \u201cSome 300 Palestinian rockets\u201d.<\/p>\n In February\u00a0RNZ<\/a>\u00a0republished a BBC\u00a0article<\/a>\u00a0relating to an exchange of fire on the West Bank which removed the one paragraph that set out the Israeli Defense Force\u2019s comments about striking a Hamas military compound.<\/p>\n An\u00a0article<\/a>\u00a0republished by RNZ in April gives a dramatically different account from that set out in the original Reuters\u00a0article<\/a>\u00a0regarding a clash between Palestinians and Israeli riot police at the Al-Aqsa mosque.<\/p>\n Another RNZ\u00a0article<\/a>\u00a0in April concerning West Bank violence contained a number of edits including the removal of the reference to a Hamas rocket hitting an Israeli house which was included in the original Reuters\u00a0article<\/a>.<\/p>\n And earlier this month,\u00a0RNZ<\/a>\u00a0edited a BBC\u00a0article<\/a>\u00a0to refer to the Red Sea resort city of Eilat as being Egyptian when the BBC article had correctly referred to it as being Israeli.<\/p>\n Each of these stories have been amended in a manner which changes, not only the tenor and tone, but also some of the basic facts. However, when one considers the cumulative effect of the changes across a number of articles, it is really quite staggering.<\/p>\n Inevitably, the number of edited stories will grow over the coming days and the topics will widen. It is already evident that stories concerning transgender issues and women\u2019s rights have also been altered although they are yet to be added to the official list of edited articles by RNZ.<\/p>\n For instance, RNZ substantially rewrote a Reuters\u00a0article<\/a>\u00a0from March titled,\u00a0Nashville school shooting: six shot dead by former student\u00a0<\/em>which related to a school shooting by a transgender person. RNZ\u2019s\u00a0edits<\/a>\u00a0included attributing a direct quotation to a Nashville Police Chief that didn\u2019t appear in the original article.<\/p>\n RNZ has also appeared to have\u00a0inappropriately edited a number of BBC articles<\/a>\u00a0relating to the British cycling ban of transgender women from competing in the female category, and relating to efforts by UK Ministers to block a Scottish gender recognition bill.<\/p>\n All of this is deeply concerning and suggests a widespread culture within the RNZ digital team of editing wire service stories with their own reporting, including by adding their own inherent biases. It will be the task of the independent review to determine the extent to which this practice has been endemic within RNZ and its underlying causes. However, it unquestionably reflects, at least to some extent, the mindset of certain younger journalists in the industry who bring their ideologies to their work, as well as a lack of sufficient editorial oversight from senior management.<\/p>\n There are an estimated four to six sub-editors within the RNZ digital team, each of whom can process in excess of 100 wire service stories in each shift. It will therefore be a substantial task for RNZ to review online articles published by them over the last several years.<\/p>\n Edits to wire service stories are routinely made by sub-editors but they are typically limited to adding local content and stylistic changes which do not alter the meaning. Wire service articles for online publication are not usually edited for length, although it is common for longer articles to be \u201csliced and diced\u201d so that the article can be released in sections over the course of the following day.<\/p>\n However under no circumstances is it acceptable, nor indeed permitted by the terms of the user agreement, for RNZ to make substantive edits to a wire service story. And despite RNZ\u2019s online content being run separately from its news department, it all falls under the responsibility of the broadcaster\u2019s editor-in-chief, Paul Thompson. For some in the media, that means that, ultimately, Thompson\u2019s position will become untenable.<\/p>\n Ironically this crisis has emerged only weeks after the government announced a public consultation to discuss\u00a0proposals to regulate online services and media platforms<\/a>\u00a0in New Zealand. Whilst the thrust of those reforms are intended to modernise media regulation to take account of the growing influence of social media platforms, ironically it is the country\u2019s national radio broadcaster that now finds itself under intense scrutiny.<\/p>\n A Cabinet Paper from May 2021 which set out the case for reform of media regulation stated, \u201cthere is also a considerable level of long-standing frustration from industry and public stakeholders over a range of perceived abandoned attempts to reform the system.\u201d Great care will, therefore, need to be taken to ensure that RNZ\u2019s failings are not used as an excuse by government to double-down on these proposed reforms which already have been identified by some as a concerning expansion of content regulation on the internet.<\/p>\n Indeed, as Chris Trotter quite rightly pointed out in\u00a0his article on Monday<\/a>, \u201cif we strip away the high-emotion with which all communications from Russia and Ukraine are received, the edits of RNZ\u2019s re-writer may be interpreted not only as a cri de c\u0153ur against the current \u2018one-side-right, one-side-wrong\u2019 reporting of this particular news story, but also a doomed appeal for the reinsertion of critical distance, nuance and balance to the journalistic enterprise.\u201d<\/p>\n Trotter\u2019s commentary was written when it seemed that this was limited to Russia-Ukraine stories but it nevertheless quite nicely summarises the frustrations, not only of journalists, but also of the public. Trotter describes these revelations as giving, \u201csome appreciation of the oppressive effect of a single, state-determined \u2018line\u2019 asserted endlessly by the emoting mannequins \u2018official\u2019 news-readers have become.\u201d That is the bigger problem that RNZ\u2019s indiscretions have revealed.<\/p>\n A small and underfunded group of media players who have been cowed into repeating the received wisdom on each topic of note without question. The irony, of course, is that much of the wire copy is produced by international outlets that already have some (mostly liberal) inherent biases but stories, particularly relating the Israel-Palestine conflict, have been edited by RNZ to strengthen those biases even more.<\/p>\n And not only is this an issue of unauthorised edits being made to wire service articles. There are a number of contentious domestic topics, such as gender and race, where alternative viewpoints will not be acknowledged by the media. Digital news operations are considered by some experienced commentators to be notoriously restrictive in that sense.<\/p>\n A recent example of selective editing of domestic stories came immediately after the Posie Parker rally in April. In the aftermath of the event, RNZ published a story titled:\u00a0Police urge rainbow community to report threats, violence in wake of Posie Parker visit<\/em>. But when journalists checked the story with Police, it became clear that the Police had made a general call to report violence and not one aimed specifically at the rainbow community. That prompted RNZ to amend the title of their story to:\u00a0Police urge anyone including the rainbow community to report threats, violence<\/em>.<\/p>\n Nevertheless that article included statements from Shaneel Lal and Disinformation Project researcher Dr Sanjana Hattotuwa, and omitted to include any comment from Kellie-Jay Keen or any of the women that had gathered in Albert Park for the Let Women Speak rally.<\/p>\n It seems inevitable that this scandal will only exacerbate the declining trust in the media \u2013 a point acknowledged by Thompson in his public statements on Monday. A\u00a0recent study conducted by AUT<\/a>\u00a0found that general trust in news has declined in 2023 from 45% to 42% with RNZ itself suffering a 14.5% decline over that period.<\/p>\n The study noted that in 2022, RNZ was the most trusted news brand followed by the the Otago Daily Times and TVNZ. This year, at least until these revelations, the trio were equally regarded as the most trusted news brands.<\/p>\n With this scandal deepening by the day, David Seymour was right to\u00a0call on Broadcasting Minister Willie Jackson to commission a fully independent inquiry<\/a>\u00a0into RNZ given that early assurances from Paul Thompson have regrettably not held up. Whether there is any political will to act is another story but Jackson\u2019s hand may be forced if edited stories continue to appear. With a general election fast approaching, RNZ will need to act quickly to restore trust and demonstrate that they deserve to be at the forefront of New Zealand media.<\/p>\n