The news RNZ doesn’t want you to hear

For some time now, I have argued that New Zealand needs an independent inquiry into the editorial culture, balance and conduct of its two state broadcasters, Radio New Zealand and Television New Zealand.

Both of these Broadcasters have drifted from their traditional role as reporters of the news, into an extreme form of ideological bias which shapes the ways that news is selected, framed and prioritised. This manifests itself as extreme bias in the way stories are presented; an almost total failure to platform serious alternative views that challenge that ideological narrative, and a category that now deserves attention of its own – the extraordinary inability of our public broadcasters to report fairly when the subject is Israel, Jews, Hamas or the wider Middle East.

However, my view does not appear to be shared by the Minister responsible. On 14 May, RNZ reported Media Minister Paul Goldsmith as saying that it is the RNZ board’s role to make decisions about management and that he “very much” supported RNZ and maintained confidence in its board.

That is an extraordinary position when set against what has been happening in plain sight. If the Minister responsible for public broadcasting “very much” supports RNZ and maintains confidence in its board, then the obvious question is: what level of imbalance, ideological selection or editorial blindness would actually concern him?

Let’s take the most recent and egregious example of this bias.

Last week, the Civil Commission on October 7th Crimes by Hamas Against Women and Children released one of the most disturbing reports to emerge from the Hamas-led massacre of October 7. The report, Silenced No More: Sexual Terror Unveiled, was not a blog post, a rumour or another passing claim from the fog of war. It was the product of a two-year investigation into sexual violence committed during the attacks and against hostages taken into Gaza, drawing on more than 430 testimonies and interviews, more than 10,000 visual records, and more than 1,800 hours of visual material.

Its findings are grotesque. The report goes much further than confirming that sexual violence occurred. It concludes that sexual and gender-based violence was systematic, widespread and integral to the Hamas attack and to the treatment of hostages in captivity. In plain English, this was not merely the opportunistic depravity of a few uncontrolled monsters. It was terror as method. Sexual violence as strategy. Humiliation as a weapon. The destruction of bodies, families and memory as part of the point.

Anyone with a functioning moral compass should have been horrified by that. Any serious media organisation should have understood the gravity of it. Any public broadcaster with a genuine commitment to truth, balance and moral seriousness should have known exactly what this story required.

But if you’re aware of the report in New Zealand you almost certainly heard about it through social media because no mainstream media outlet covered it!

Yep, you read that correctly. Hamas films its atrocities, glorifies its murderers, hides behind civilians, lies about casualties, exploits hospitals, schools and mosques, and then watches as much of the Western media launders its propaganda into headlines. Then, when presented with a comprehensive two-year investigation and the testimony of hundreds of eyewitnesses into the proven conduct of Hamas – NZ media decided that ‘it wasn’t a story’.

No one picked it up. Not Stuff. Not the Herald. Not 1News. And certainly not RNZ.

So perhaps it was a busy news week with no space for stories about Israel? Nope – over the same period during which RNZ completely ignored this groundbreaking report it found room for a parade of anti-Israel stories. It reported on a Cannes-winning writer railing against Hollywood over Gaza. It reported on Eurovision controversy surrounding Israel’s participation. It reported on Israel killing the son of a senior Hamas leader. It reported on the UN demanding the release of Gaza flotilla activists and on an Israeli court extending their detention, and it reported on calls for the New Zealand government to intervene over the flotilla and on claims that a New Zealander aboard had suffered concussion and a possible broken rib.

Let that sink in. A publicly funded broadcaster that routinely finds space for stories which place Israel under suspicion was unable to give comparable prominence to a major report documenting systematic sexual violence by Hamas. The same media that can elevate allegation after allegation against Israel appear strangely incurious when the victims are Israeli women, girls, families and hostages. When the evidence cuts against Hamas, the urgency vanishes.

That’s not balance – it’s ideological selection.

The Hamas atrocities of October 7 were not complicated. They were not morally ambiguous. They were not a tragic misunderstanding between two equally culpable sides. They were the deliberate acts of a terrorist movement that invaded Israel and committed barbarism against civilians. The Commission’s report does not create that truth. It documents it with a level of seriousness that should have demanded serious media attention.

Which brings us back to Paul Goldsmith.

If the Minister “very much” supports RNZ and maintains confidence in its board, then he needs to explain what level of imbalance would actually concern him. Radio New Zealand can find time for Eurovision, flotilla activists, Hollywood statements and routine allegations against Israel, but apparently not give proper prominence to a major report documenting systematic sexual violence by Hamas during the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust. That is not a minor editorial oversight. It is exactly the sort of failure that justifies an independent inquiry.

An inquiry would not be about politicians dictating editorial lines. It would be about asking whether our state broadcasters still meet the standards the public is entitled to expect from publicly owned media. It would ask whether stories are being selected and framed through a narrow ideological lens, whether serious alternative views are being excluded, and whether Israel and Jewish issues are being treated with anything approaching fairness.

Former National voters are abandoning that party in their droves precisely because of this sort of willful blindspotting. They did not elect a centre-right government so that publicly funded institutions could continue treating their worldview, their concerns and their moral instincts as something to be ignored, managed or quietly patronised.

The scandal is not only what RNZ and other NZ media failed to cover. The scandal is that the Minister responsible seems unable, or unwilling, to see why it matters.