The review assessed coverage and complaints made to RNZ since Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups attacked Israel in October 2023. Photo: RNZ / Cole Eastham-Farrelly
A review of RNZ coverage regarding the conflict in Gaza has concluded RNZ has abided by its own editorial policy - as well as the standards and principles of the Media Council and the Broadcasting Standards Authority watchdogs.
The review assessed coverage and complaints made to RNZ since Palestinian armed groups attacked Israel in October 2023 and the subsequent Israeli response in Gaza and other areas in the region.
"There is a sense that complainants consider themselves and their families to be victims of bad reporting or unfair editorial decisions ... and an underlying suspicion that the media generally is aligned with the people the complainants view as opponents," said the review.
"I heard and read nothing I would consider likely to reach the point of breaching the standards, with the exception of one matter which led to RNZ quickly retracting and correcting a writing error and upholding complaints," said the reviewer, former RNZ editorial policy manager Colin Feslier.
RNZ news bulletins on 28 and 29 January 2024 inaccurately stated a ruling by the International Court of Justice "found Israel not guilty of genocide" with reference to comments by a law professor.
The ICJ case brought by South Africa had not concluded at that time.
After complaints that was corrected after 10 am on 29 January 2024 and the error was acknowledged in subsequent bulletins.
"The standards are very clear that balance is achieved over time," the review stated.
"A partisan listener, or one specifically concerned about balance, will always find this difficult to appreciate when a story covers only one side of a controversy, or gives time to only one version of a disputed claim, or appears to treat people taking up one side or another differently."
RNZ committed to reviewing its editorial output each year after an external review prompted by the 'Russia editing' controversy in 2023 - in which an RNZ digital journalist was found to have inappropriately edited more than 50 online international news stories.
Most were altered with a pro-Russian slant, described as "pro-Kremlin garbage" by chief executive Paul Thompson at the time.
The final audit included three news agency stories about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Recommendations for change
The review recommended RNZ recognise that "audience expectations and response to audience concerns ... need planned management and additional care".
"RNZ should consider procedures and policies that build its reputation for accuracy, fairness and balance and aim to do better than 'not breaching standards'. The fact that the standards exist and are upheld ... should be apparent to listeners and readers," the review said.
But Feslier said his 14 recommendations did "not indicate any major failings, threat to the maintenance of statutory standards or any problem with the handing of complaints".
"Editorial guidance should be developed to encourage the use of exact and clear terms so that such complaints can be reduced in number."
It recommended "all stories, including introductions and story angles (should) be checked by a second senior staffer before broadcast" - and RNZ should create a guide for coverage "including use of specific words and the need for more than-usual explanation of balance".
It said references to Israel's capital, the use of the terms 'Palestine' and 'Palestinian' and the circumstances in which 'illegal', 'terrorist' and 'genocide' are used should also be set out in editorial policy.
"Two complaints appeared to be motivated by, and to express, undisguised antisemitism. RNZ rightly declined to consider these complaints, or complaints expressing a similar irrational animus against other groups," the review said.
"RNZ should develop a formal policy allowing ... rejection of anti-Semitic and similar complaints and explaining how this is appropriate given the Bill of Rights Act and the Broadcasting Act," the review said.
The report also said RNZ should regularly update its "understanding of who holds 'significant points of view' on the Israel/Palestinian issue ... and views that are not significant (eg debunked antisemitic or Islamophobic conspiracy theories)".
It also said the RNZ website should set out the news sources RNZ trusts.
"Editorial staff at RNZ already apply the commonsense traditions of impartial journalism," the report said.
RNZ said in response the review of complaints received "challenges us to do more to explain the decision-making processes and to be open and non-defensive in the way we respond".
A thorny issue for other broadcasters
Public broadcasters in other countries have also faced complaints about their coverage of the conflict - including internal dissent.
Last November more than 100 current and former BBC staff wrote to the broadcaster's director-general and CEO accusing BBC News of favouring Israel and a lack of "accurate evidence-based journalism ... holding Israel to account for its actions".
In Australia, the ABC has been rocked by a costly court case after fill-in presenter Antoinette Lattouf was let go after three days on the morning radio show after she shared a Human Rights Watch social media post that claimed Israel used starvation as a weapon of war in Gaza.
Lattouf has claimed "systemic racism at the ABC" has been exposed in her unlawful termination case. The ABC's former chair Ita Buttrose accused the outgoing ABC CEO David Anderson of lying in disputed accounts of how the dismissal was handled.
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