The Cook Islands prime minister Henry Puna is to lay a complaint with the New Zealand Media Council over allegedly false information published by the New Zealand website Stuff.co.nz last month.
Cook Islands Prime Minister Henry Puna Photo: Phillipa Webb / Cook Islands News
The Cook Islands News says Mr Puna launched an attack in Parliament over the reporting of the Cook Islands campaign to join the United Nations.
Mr Puna says the journalists angled their story to state that such a policy would mean that Cook Islanders would be losing their New Zealand citizenship.
But he says there is no substance to the story whatsoever, adding that during a meeting with Cook Islanders in New Zealand this week, he had to reiterate there was no truth in the Stuff story.
Mr Puna says the journalists never gave him the courtesy of an interview or a response to questions on what they wrote.
The article says the office of the Cook Islands secretary for Foreign Affairs and Immigration did not respond to an interview request.
Mr Puna says he is filing a complaint with the Media Council in New Zealand against the writers of the article.
