Photo: RNZ / Cole Eastham-Farrelly
An independent review of editorial processes at RNZ has called for greater oversight and enforcement of standards after a single staffer made 'inappropriate' edits to international news stories online. It also says RNZ's response "contributed to public alarm and reputational damage."
In early June overseas users noticed international wire stories on RNZ.co.nz had been edited to include pro-Russia perspectives relating to the war in Ukraine.
RNZ's chief executive Paul Thompson called it “pro-Kremlin garbage" in an RNZ interview at the time.
RNZ tightened editorial checks and stood down an online journalist who had been working remotely.
The suspended RNZ journalist - who later resigned - told Checkpoint he edited reports “in that way for five years” - and nobody had ever queried it or told him to stop.
An RNZ audit of stories cited 49 on a range of international conflicts and issues were inappropriately edited. But the independent panel said it felt not all the edits identified by RNZ were inappropriate.
It also emerged the Ukrainian community had complained to the broadcasting minister in October 2022 about an earlier RNZ.co.nz story the staff member wrote which included criticism of New Zealand's support for Ukraine.
In late June RNZ appointed external experts with legal and broadcasting expertise to investigate the problem, RNZ's handling of it and to suggest remedies.
The panel: Willy Akel, a leading media law expert and barrister who was formerly TVNZ’s legal counsel; Linda Clark, a partner at Dentons Kensington Swan and formerly a TV and radio journalist and former RNZ Nine to Noon host; Alan Sunderland, former Editorial Standards Director at Australia’s public broadcaster the ABC.
The panel found the staff member had breached editorial standards with inappropriate editing of overseas wire stories, but “genuinely believed he was acting appropriately to provide balance and accuracy, and was not motivated by any desire to introduce misinformation, disinformation or propaganda".
“Despite that, inappropriate editing of the type that was identified constitutes a serious breach of trust and damaged RNZ’s reputation for accurate and balanced journalism.
"What we found was a journalist who acted in breach of both editorial standards and RNZ’s contract with Reuters and an organisation that facilitated the conditions for a journalist to do so."
The panel found the overseas news part of RNZ’s digital operation was not operating to the same high standards as the rest of RNZ News.
“The overall organisational structure that has existed since 2016 is unsatisfactory and separates digital news team from the news team,” it said.
"Without question, the single most common issue that was raised again and again in our interviews with RNZ staff was the structural separation that exists between RNZ’s broadcast news content and its digital news content," the report said.
"The inappropriate editing that took place occurred in the digital news team, which sits in the Content Division of RNZ. The rest of RNZ’s broadcast news output, which was not in any way connected with the inappropriate editing, is done by a separate Division – the News Division," the report said.
"There are valid historical reasons for this division, which was common in many organisations, particularly public broadcasters, in the early days of the internet. Online news was a new emerging area, requiring in many cases new ways of thinking and its own ‘champions’ to fight for its value and its significance. Traditional broadcast newsrooms often failed to see the value of expanding into online news. Digital journalists, initially at least, needed room to grow and establish themselves. But those days are long gone."
- Independent External Review of RNZ Editorial Processes 2023
The panel said busy, poorly resourced digital news team members were not adequately supervised or trained.
"The training materials we reviewed were basic and staff had not engaged with them. Training in editorial standards across the organisation lacked consistency and effectiveness," the report said.
The panel also agreed with staff concerns about "outdated technology, organisational silos and a lack of trust between the digital news team and the traditional newsroom."
The panel also criticised RNZ’s public response.
“The way the journalist’s errors were framed at the time by RNZ’s leadership contributed to public alarm and reputational damage which the panel believes was not helpful in maintaining public trust,” the report says.
‘Pro-Kremlin garbage’ was, in the panel’s view, unhelpful when RNZ was "acting on incomplete information."
"Listeners and others may have believed the editing had been a deliberate and orchestrated exercise in propaganda, rather than a failure of journalistic decision-making or practice," it said.
The panel has recommended combining RNZ’s digital news editing with that of the main news operation - and a new role focused on raising editorial standards.”
RNZ chair Dr Mather said in a statement both moves were already in progress.
“RNZ will adopt the recommendations as soon as possible and will report back to the public on our progress," said RNZ Chief Executive Paul Thompson.
He said RNZ had already started reviewing RNZ editorial policy, including balance provisions, and decided to integrate the digital web editing within the news division and upgrade or replace ageing editorial in-house news production systems radio and online news.
