Peter Millar against the Gisborne Herald

The Gisborne Herald published an article on October 24, 2025, titled Gisborne District Council apologises for error over Te Maro viewing platform statement.

This reported that the Gisborne District Council had issued a correction to a statement that it made in a 2023 media release, which suggested the Te Maro sculpture would be able to be seen from the waka bridge.

Peter Millar, who raised concerns about the visibility of Te Maro from the bridge in 2023, complained The Gisborne Herald breached Principles (1) Accuracy, Fairness and Balance (2) Privacy (4) Comment and Fact (5) Columns, Blogs, Opinion and Letters (6) Headlines and Captions (10) Conflicts of Interest and (12) Corrections.

The Gisborne Herald responded it had reported on the facts of the matter. The council made an error which Mr Millar had brought to their attention over two years ago, and the council had only just acknowledged it now. The paper was not the place to litigate this and other issues he had with the district council.

It does appear that many of the points made in this complaint relate to the district council rather than the Gisborne Herald.

The article appeared to be a straightforward report of a district council statement that it had made a mistake in a press release two years earlier. That error was not the fault of the Gisborne Herald, and there was no inaccuracy in its reporting.

There was no evidence to show any of the Media Council’s Principles were breached and we have not been shown any clear errors in the reporting.

Decision:  No grounds to proceed.