Source: Radio New Zealand
TVNZ. RNZ/Marika Khabazi
Questions have been raised about TVNZ’s editorial independence after its chair discussed a news story with Broadcasting Minister Paul Goldsmith, media commentator Tim Murphy says.
TVNZ chair Andrew Barclay rang the minister after Goldsmith and cabinet colleague Mark Mitchell expressed dissatisfaction with a 1News story about gang numbers.
Goldsmith appointed Barclay to the public broadcaster’s board in September.
The story, about gang members now narrowly outnumbering police officers, aired on 1News last Thursday.
The report aired the same day the latest Crime and Victims survey showed 49,000 fewer victims of violent crime in the year to October 2025 compared to the previous survey in 2023.
Barclay spoke with Goldsmith over the phone before 1News ran a second story with a more positive angle.
Goldsmith, who is also the Justice Minister, confirmed he had spoken to the 1News journalist after the first story aired.
“Just like I often do when I’m not happy with a story, I ring the journalist and give them the benefit of my opinions,” he said.
Broadcasting Minister Paul Goldsmith confirmed he had spoken to the 1News journalist after the first story aired. RNZ / Nathan McKinnon
Goldsmith then said he had a “very short” call from the chair of TVNZ’s board “on a range of matters”, and the story came up in passing.
He “absolutely” did not bring the story up himself and he did not discuss editorial matters with Barclay, Goldsmith said.
“It’s not appropriate for me to be talking about political discussions and editorial matters with the board, and I haven’t,” he said.
Newsroom co-editor Tim Murphy told Midday Report running the second 1News story following those events gave the impression TVNZ was trying to make up for upsetting the government.
However, there were still many unanswered questions.
“The independence from ministers and the government of the day is really important for TVNZ and RNZ particularly, but how much went on and where and by whom I think we’re yet to find out,” Murphy said.
“Probably we’ll have to rely on the Official Information Act among other things to really know quite how involved or otherwise political interests were.”
It would be unusual for TVNZ’s chair to ringing the Broadcasting Minister about the broadcaster’s coverage, he said.
“The chair and the minister talk and that’s sort of the line of authority if you like, but not I think when the minister has been complaining so loud himself under his other portfolio,” Murphy said.
Barclay ought to have been aware of the “twilight zone of politics and media and journalism ethics”, he said.
Police Minister Mark Mitchell took to Facebook to express his frustration with the story after 1News’ gangs report.
Mitchell said it was “absolutely unbelievable” that, on a day the government had announced fewer victims of violent crime and a reduction in serious repeat youth offending, 1News “chose instead to engage in unbalanced journalism by running a story about gang membership with none of the context around the outstanding work our police are doing in cracking down on gangs in New Zealand”.
Five days later, 1News ran a second story reporting on the crime statistics the government had announced the previous week.
Mitchell again raised what he said was an “unbalanced” report during Question Time on Wednesday.
Labour’s police spokesperson Ginny Andersen then asked Mitchell whether he, any member of his office or any person acting on his behalf made contact with the TVNZ board regarding the report.
Mitchell said he had received a call from a “senior” TVNZ person to apologise after his Facebook post but he had not contacted anyone at TVNZ. He also confirmed the person he spoke to was not a member of the public broadcaster’s board.
A TVNZ spokesperson said the organisation’s political editor had contacted Mitchell’s office after the gang numbers story to advise the victims of crime data “should have been included”.
The spokesperson said the story was then reviewed internally and an editorial decision was made to run a follow-up story “incorporating those figures to ensure balanced coverage and to aid audience understanding around the use of differing crime statistics”.
The board chair and the minister talked regularly, TVNZ said.
“TVNZ’s Board Directors also take an interest in how editorial standards are maintained. But editorial independence is of paramount importance to us and operational decisions on how stories are covered are our own.”
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
