Martin Broadbent against Radio New Zealand

Radio New Zealand (RNZ) published a series of articles between November 17 to November 22, 2025, on the problems caused by feral cats and the decision to allow them to be targeted as predators.

The articles were headlined: Feral: The advance of destructive wild cats across New Zealand’s native heartland (17 Nov), Christopher Luxon said feral cats would be added as a target in Predator Free 2050 – but it hasn’t happened (19 Nov), ‘Stone cold killer’ feral cats added to Predator Free 2050 strategy, Conservation Minister announces (20 Nov), Why are there so few rules for the millions of cats that damage our biodiversity? (22 Nov).

Martin Broadbent complained that RNZ’s reporting on feral cats and Predator Free 2050 blurred the legal distinction between feral and stray cats, thereby misleading the public and undermining animal welfare protections under the law.

In response, Radio New Zealand said it firmly rejected the suggestion that it was blurring the categories. The term feral was widely used and was included in Predator Free 2050’s list of species.

“RNZ does not believe a commonly used term requires a large amount of explanation with each story. However, you will note several of the stories in the series include information about what a feral cat is. No story refers to the eradication of stray cats.”

The first story in the series clearly explained the difference between companion, feral and stray cats. The 'Stone cold killer' story included a section entitled ‘What is a feral cat’, which explained that feral cats survive without human intervention and the last of the stories clearly explained the different categories and included the National Cat Management’s group approach to stray cats versus feral cats.

The Media Council agreed the first article spelt out precisely how feral and stray cats were defined and two other stories in the series also defined the word feral to make it clear they are not referring to strays.

On that basis it saw nothing to support a claim that this was of “an orchestrated blurring of categories that misleads the public into believing all unowned cats are “feral” and subject to lethal control.”

The difference between feral and stray is commonly understood as well as being spelt out in most of these articles.

There was nothing to show the reporting breached Principle (1) Accuracy, Fairness and Balance.

Decision:  No grounds to proceed.