Reports On ASH Breached Standards And Fell Well Short Of Journalistic Expectations

The BSA has upheld two complaints from Action for Smokefree 2025 (ASH) about two ThreeNews items reporting concerns about ASH.

The Authority found the reporting on alleged conflicts of interest and ASH’s stance on vaping breached multiple broadcasting standards.

It has ordered broadcaster Warner Brothers Discovery to publish a statement summarising the decision, pay $1,710.62 in costs to the complainant, and pay $3,000 costs to the Crown.

The two news items aired in the last week of July 2024, in 6pm bulletins on ThreeNews. Stuff is contracted to produce ThreeNews broadcasts for Warner Brothers Discovery following the disestablishment of Newshub last year. The new Stuff-produced ThreeNews was launched on 6 July 2024.

The first item aired on 26 July 2024 and was presented as a “special investigation” into concerns about alleged links between ASH and the “pro-vaping” lobby in Australia. The BSA found it breached the fairness, balance and accuracy standards.

“The broadcast created a misleading, unbalanced and unfairly negative impression of the complainant, by favouring particular (critical) perspectives, while failing to adequately present ASH’s position in response – despite this having been discussed at length during an un-aired 30-minute interview. This undermined the public interest in the story as the audience did not have the benefit of hearing both sides.

“The reporter did not fairly inform ASH about the nature of the story or ASH’s contribution to it; ASH’s comments on the issues were not fairly presented, meaning the item was unbalanced; and, collectively, a number of statements and the presentation of ASH’s position created a misleading and unfairly negative impression of ASH,” the BSA said.

The second item, four days later on 30 July 2024, reported a school had “refused to allow” its students to take part in ASH’s annual Year 10 Vaping Survey due to concerns about ASH’s stance on youth vaping. The BSA found it was misleading and unfair to ASH and its director, as the item’s live cross format presented this as ‘breaking news’ but did not disclose the relevant email from the school was from 2021.

“The broadcaster did not make reasonable efforts to ensure accuracy, by failing to report important factual context which would have significantly altered viewers’ understanding of the item; and the single comment included from ASH failed to respond to the issues and unfairly portrayed ASH in a negative light,” the Authority said.

“The failure to include relevant and important information, and to adequately include comment from ASH that responded to the thrust of the story, demonstrates shortfalls in editorial processes and oversight on this occasion, in breach of the accuracy and fairness standards.”

Both broadcasts “fell well short of the journalistic standards we believe New Zealand audiences expect from news programmes”, the BSA said.

“Together, they demonstrated a continued narrative favouring perspectives that were strongly critical of ASH, while failing to fairly present the other side of the story.”

Under the Broadcasting Act 1989 the BSA has no jurisdiction over online news outlets including Stuff – only the television broadcast of the stories by Warner Brothers Discovery. The stories were removed from Stuff’s websites yesterday when the Authority’s final decision was issued.

© Scoop Media