“Broadcasting Minister Willie Jackson needs to commission an independent inquiry into RNZ after new revelations that stories about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and China’s treatment of Uighurs were also edited to provide Palestinian and Chinese-friendly framing”, says ACT Leader David Seymour.

“RNZ’s assurance that this serious issue was limited to stories about the Russian invasion of Ukraine is clearly incorrect. Unless they can confirm immediately that only one rogue person is responsible, then the Minister needs to step in.

“An 8 March Reuters story subsequently run on the RNZ website was edited as follows:

• ‘militant groups Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Fatah’ was changed to ‘resistance groups Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Fatah’.
• ‘six Palestinian gunmen’ was changed to ‘six Palestinians’.
• ‘Nablus, another centre of militant activity’ was changed to ‘Nablus’.
• ‘Hamas, which runs the blockaded Gaza Strip’ was changed to ‘Hamas, the elected government of the blockaded Gaza Strip’.
• ‘including militant fighters’ was changed to ‘including fighters’.

“A 23 March Reuters article about China’s abuses in Xinjiang subsequently published on RNZ’s website was also edited. For example:

• ‘Western governments are seeking to hold Beijing accountable for mass detentions of Muslim Uighurs in northwestern China, where the United States says China is committing genocide’ was changed to ‘Western governments are seeking to hold Beijing accountable for mass detentions of Muslim Uighurs in northwestern China.’
• ‘China says its camps provide vocational training and are needed to fight extremism’ was changed to ‘China denies rights abuses in Xinjiang and says its camps provide vocational training and are needed to fight extremism.’

“For our state broadcaster to publish material that included Russian, Palestinian and Chinese propaganda is appalling. New Zealanders should be able to trust our state broadcaster to be totally and utterly impartial.

“This reflects badly on RNZ, but it will also have an effect on media overall. New Zealanders’ trust in the media has been steadily declining over many years, and this episode will undermine that trust further.

“RNZ has said it will appoint a panel and write the terms of reference for an investigation. This is clearly no longer tenable. In order to restore trust, Broadcasting Minister Willie Jackson needs to commission an investigation that is totally independent of RNZ.”

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