Jenni Yan against Radio New Zealand

Radio New Zealand (RNZ) ran an article on April 30, 2025, that was teased on its website home page with the headline Prisoners to be banned from voting again, defying court ruling.

The article reported Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith’s announcement that Cabinet has agreed to reinstate a total ban on prisoners voting in general elections, dismissing a ruling from the High Court and recommendations from the Independent Electoral Review and Waitangi Tribunal.

Jenni Yan complained to RNZ saying: The Government cannot "defy" the Courts - the New Zealand judiciary did not have the power to order Government to legislate. “This article's framing presents a profound ignorance of New Zealand's political constitutional system and amounts to disinformation.”

She said it breached Media Council Principles (1) Accuracy, Fairness and Balance and (6) Headlines and Captions.

In response RNZ said the verb ‘defy’ was not used in the article. Nor did it suggest that the judiciary had the power to order a government to amend or create legislation.

In her complaint to the Media Council Ms Yan said she was concerned at the condescending tone of RNZ’s response. She felt “they are trying to gaslight me” and that RNZ had not responded to what she was complaining about.

The Media Council notes Ms Yan’s concern and that RNZ seems to have misunderstood that she was complaining about the headline and not the article.

However, the Media Council notes that the word “defying” does not just mean refusing to obey.  It also means to openly resist or to appear to be challenging something.  It was used in the RNZ headline to report that Government did not accept the Court’s ruling and was planning to effectively overrule it by changing the law.

While the story referred to Government dismissing, rather than defying the High Court ruling, the headline was not for the above reason unfair or inaccurate. Moreover, despite the misunderstanding there was nothing that was unnecessarily disparaging in the RNZ response.  No case was made to show the headline or story breached Media Council Principles.

Decision:  No grounds to proceed.