RNZ misled public over Govt decision to wrap up MIQ, broadcast watchdog rules

Radio New Zealand has breached broadcasting standards with its coverage of the MIQ system ending.

A Broadcasting Standards Authority decision, released on Tuesday, found RNZ mislead the public during two bulletins in August 2022.

The bulletins suggested the Government delayed winding up the Covid-19 Managed Isolation and Quarantine (MIQ) scheme, despite public health advice that the system was no longer needed and should be wound up “immediately”.

However, this was inaccurate, as the advice was actually that there should be a “‘carefully managed transition’ to safely shift to a new system”.

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The BSA decision said RNZ’s omission of this was misleading, as it gave a “strong impression” that the Government had acted contrary to the advice.

“The essence of the bulletins overall was that officials had agreed MIQ was no longer justified on public health grounds in November 2021, but it took another three and a half months, seven rounds of the room release lottery and up to 40,000 MIQ stays until the system was wound up.”

The accuracy and balance in reporting of the story was particularly important, given the high level of public interest in the MIQ system.

While balance could be achieved over time through subsequent reporting, RNZ did not make reasonable efforts to ensure its coverage presented the full picture, which the authority found was “misleading by omission”.

“As a result, we consider there was a real risk that New Zealanders could be misled about matters of public importance through the exclusion of important contextual information, and therefore a restriction on freedom of expression is justified in this case.”

The authority ordered RNZ to broadcast a statement summarising its decision.