TOM FREWEN AGAINST RNZ
Case Number: 3336
Council Meeting: NOVEMBER 2022
Decision: No Grounds to Proceed
Publication: Radio NZ
Principle:
Accuracy, Fairness and Balance
Headlines and Captions
Corrections
Ruling Categories:
Behaviour of Journalists
Misleading
Politics
Overview
Radio New Zealand published an article on October 12, 2022, headlined Parliament reacts to agriculture pricing plan.
Tom Frewen complained that the headline was inaccurate, and this prompted RNZ to change the headline to read Government’s agriculture pricing plan gathers mixed reactions.
Mr Frewen said that while his complaint may seem trivial and pedantic it raised serious issues. It could only have been written by someone who was ignorant of the political system, the story made no mention of Parliament and the headline highlighted the need for websites to have rigorous checking procedures. Parliament and government were being confused.
The Media Council can see that RNZ corrected the headline after Mr Frewen drew the mistake to its attention. RNZ made a mistake and corrected it promptly. The inaccuracy is unlikely to have had any adverse consequences.
Decision: There were insufficient grounds to proceed.