TVNZ to pay costs of $1,000 over Fair Go item

TVNZ ordered to pay costs of $1,000 following inaccuracy in Fair Go item

Television New Zealand has been ordered to pay costs of $1,000 after a Fair Go item was found to have breached two broadcasting standards.

The Broadcasting Standards Authority found that the item about the copyright of online photographs, which screened on 11 November 2009, breached the standards relating to accuracy and fairness.

The item featured a New Zealand woman who claimed a photo she had taken of a tree underneath a rainbow had been posted on the internet and the rights to it claimed by another person.

A reporter discussed the various websites on which she had found the photo, including a website where a man claimed to have taken the photo in Missouri, USA. The photo was shown on the website, with a caption above it reading, “A Full Rainbow, Photograph by Dan Bush”.

Later in the item the reporter said she had contacted him and said, “He claims that it’s his photo so we’ll try to get to the bottom of it.”

Mr Bush complained to Television New Zealand that Fair Go had suggested he had stolen the photo from the woman interviewed.

Mr Bush maintained he could prove he was the sole creator of a series of photographs known as “Rainbow at Elam Bend”.

Television New Zealand maintained that the programme had not accused Mr Bush of any wrongdoing and had not named him. The reporter made it clear that the “American photographer” had stated that he owned the image. The purpose of the story was not to expose anyone who might have “stolen” the image but to advise viewers how to protect copyright in their photographs. The woman interviewed sincerely believed that she had taken the photo, and the reporter had no reason to doubt her story, TVNZ said.

TVNZ accepted that the photo was taken by Mr Bush and said that the Fair Go item had been removed from TVNZ’s website and replaced with text outlining that Mr Bush was the owner of the photo, and that the story would be revisited when Fair Go returned in 2010. A correction was broadcast on 12 May 2010.

TVNZ declined to uphold Mr Bush’s complaint, which he then referred to the BSA.

In its decision the BSA said the programme clearly conveyed the message that the woman in New Zealand owned the rights to the image and therefore that Mr Bush had stolen it.

“Although some doubt was introduced at the end of the item when the reporter said that she had spoken to Mr Bush and “he claims that it’s his photo”, we consider that viewers would still have been left with a strong impression that the woman in New Zealand was the rightful owner and that he was being dishonest.”

Therefore, the BSA determined, the programme was misleading.

The BSA rejected TVNZ’s suggestion that a promise of future action to correct an inaccuracy was enough to remedy a breach of the accuracy standard.

Because of the programme was misleading and created the impression for viewers that Mr Bush had “stolen” the photo the BSA also found that TVNZ had treated Mr Bush unfairly.

TVNZ was ordered to pay $1,000 costs to the Crown. Costs were considered appropriate because TVNZ’s written response to Mr Bush trivialised the complaint and TVNZ did not uphold a breach of the accuracy or fairness standards, based on its promise to broadcast a correction in the first episode of Fair Go in 2010.

However, the correction was broadcast in the second episode, and the BSA took the view it was a token statement which further trivialised the matter and which contained no admission that Fair Go was responsible for the mistake.

Ends

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