31 Oct 2014

Radio New Zealand's CEO defends Fiji election coverage

7:20 pm on 31 October 2014

Radio New Zealand is rejecting claims its reporting of the Fiji elections was racist, unbalanced, and inaccurate.

The head of Fiji's Media Industry Development Authority, Ashwin Raj, made the accusations while speaking at the United Nations' Human Rights Council in Geneva.

He says the Authority called for, and received, retractions and apologies from Radio New Zealand and Al Jazeera.

The Chief Executive of Radio New Zealand, Paul Thompson, rejects this.

"There's no way that that's a justified complaint, there's no grounds for that at all. Our coverage was balanced, thorough and robust, and that's what they didn't like about it and I think it's a really unfair allegation."

Paul Thompson says no apology was asked for or given by Radio New Zealand.