A decision by the Broadcasting Standards Authority to uphold a complaint against a 1News broadcast in November is a warning to the news media, says the Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa.
The Broadcasting Standards Authority has ruled that a TVNZ news item on violence in Amsterdam breached BSA rules.
1News described violence in the streets of Amsterdam following a soccer match as ‘disturbing’ and ‘antisemitic’ and stated the graphic video of beatings were Maccabi Tel Aviv fans under attack just for being Jewish.
Videographers who took the footage which 1News had used, complained to their news agencies that this description was quite wrong. The violence was perpetrated by the Israeli Maccabi Tel Aviv fans against those they suspected of being Arab or supporters of Palestine. The visiting Israelis were the attackers – not the victims.
(Before the match these same Maccabi fans had gathered in large groups to chant “Death to Arabs” – a racist genocidal chant which if used with the races reversed (“Arabs” replaced by Jews”) would have been rightly condemned in purple prose by western news media such as TVNZ. But no such sympathy for Palestinians or Arabs)
PSNA immediately requested that TVNZ broadcast a correction. TVNZ refused, though admitting they had got the story wrong.
PSNA then referred a complaint to the BSA who upheld the complaint as failing to meet the accuracy standard.
PSNA Co-Chair John Minto says the BSA decision should be seen as a warning to the news media to be aware that Israel is using fabricated charges of antisemitism, to justify and divert attention from its genocide in Gaza and silence its critics.
“Just because Benjamin Netanyahu and the then US president Joe Biden made statements turning Amsterdam attackers into victims, doesn’t mean TVNZ news should automatically parrot them,” Minto says. “That’s effectively what the BSA concluded.”
Minto also points to what he called a recent fabricated hysteria about antisemitism in Sydney, which the New South Wales police found to be completely based on hoaxes by a criminal gang.
“In the US, Trump is using the same charge as an excuse to close down university courses and expel anyone who protests against the Israeli genocide in Gaza.”
“The Human Rights Commission here has also been guilty of publishing misinformation through the news media, which it refuses to publicly correct, probably because of its own fondness for Israel.”
“Of course, we strongly condemn the real antisemitism of anti-Jewish, Nazi-type Islamophobic groups,” Minto says.
“It should be easy for professional reporters and editors to tell the difference between criticism of Israeli apartheid, ethnic cleansing and violence on one hand, and on the other hand Nazis and their fellow travellers who condemn Jews because they are Jews”
“The BSA is, in effect, demanding the news media educate themselves.”
John Minto
Co-Chair
Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa
Yawn
Are you bored by the fact there’s a genocide on and children are being killed in the tens of thousands and starved to death as we speak? Oh you poor thing, better get back to that nonsense unreality show you like to watch maybe.
It is your hypocrisy that is boring.
You’re an idiot!
‘Completely based on hoaxes by a criminal gang.’
A perfect description of the Exodus myth and modern Zionists.
Silence is conpliance
Even worse than the media’s active lies. is the media’s outright silence in the face of genocide. A genocide, that just like us, they are all aware of through their social media feeds.
Active lies can be dealt with, just as in this case active lying can be disproved and called out. But inactive silence is harder to deal with, and in my opinion even worse.
All the legacy media journalists who work at tvNZ, RNZ, NZ Herald, stuff.co that have kept their mouths tightly shut and their laptops closed and keypads untouched, over Israel’s deliberate starvation of 2 million people, are either cowards or are giving their passive aggressive support to this act of genocide.
Whether their self censorship springs from cowardice or passive aggressive support for genocide. willingly or not, their silence is compliance.
TVNZ did screen a very disturbing shot of starving children and babies last night on TV. So are they growing a conscience or is it just that things have got so bad? it’s only 18 months too late I guess.
RNZ did actually report the bombing of a hospital this morning on their 8.30 news bulletin. Chalk it up.
“TVNZ did screen a very disturbing shot of starving children and babies last night on TV. So are they growing a conscience or is it just that things have got so bad?” Paul Crawford
Yes things are ‘so bad’ and getting worse, but that has never stopped our media covering it up or ignoring before.
Just like you Paul, I have noticed a change of tone in the media too, but not just here in NZ but also in the UK with the BBC and other overseas news channels.
As to your question as to why this might be, the IDF have become almost insanely genocidal and are more openly going about it.
But I don’t think that is why our media are changing their coverage.
By their own behaviour Israel is destroying itself and is well on its way to becoming a failed state.
Whereas in the past our media would consciously ignore the atrocities being committed by Israel in Gaza against the Palestinian people, they are beginning to feel which way the wing is blowing, even the Americans feel this, and know it is better not to have all your eggs in one basket.
US President Donald Trump is busy strengthening relations with the Midddle Eastern autocratic powers, while ignoring Israel. Saudi Arabia looks set to become America’s new unsinkable aircraft carrier in the Middle East, a position that Israel once exclusively held. It is better to have two baskets for your eggs especially when one of the basket carriers is starting to look a bit wobbly.
Like the US Trump administration, our media here are hedging their bets.
Instead of feeling the ground shifting under them and moderating their behaviour the Israelis have become even more genocidal.
As to why that might be, senior editor of the Source, Zain Raza interviews economist and author Dr. Shir Hever, to discuss the current state of the IDF and Israeli government.
Dr. Shir Hever explains that genocide has become not just a choice, for the IDF but a miltiary necessity. brought about by the IDF’s manpower shortages. The IDF can only drop bombs and fire missiles on civilians, because they can’t deploy enough troops necessary to conquer the Gaza Strip.
Adding to the pressyre on the IDF choosing mass and indiscriminate genocidal bombardment, over militaary action on the ground, the IDF have been given an unlimited supply of bombs and missiles supplied to them by the US.
This doesn’t make them look any less mad.
Is the Israeli Military on the brink of Collapse? Dr. Shir Hever
13,370 views May 9, 2025
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohPZT_vSOXQ
In this episode of The Source, our senior editor Zain Raza interviews economist and author Dr. Shir Hever about Israel’s plans to take over the Gaza Strip and ethnically cleanse it. They also discuss the state of the Israeli military and government, as well as the internal and external challenges the country is facing
Zain Raza @1:03 minutes:
“….Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced plans to significantly expand the offensive by calling tens of thousands of reserveists and taking full control of the gaza strip with the stated goal of eliminating Hamas, and potentially ethnically cleansing large parts of the Palestinian population out of gaza……”
Dr. Shir Hever @3:22 minutes:
“….Now let’s let’s talk about the the current operation.
I want to start with with talking about the name of this operation.
The Israelis call it the ‘Chariots of Gideon’, or ‘Gideon’s Chariot’, um and unfortunately we are now dealing with an Israeli government, which is so messianic and fundamentalist in its perspective, that in order to understand their intentions, you have to open the Bible.
Who was gideon?
A biblical figure who was mentioned specifically in his story in the Book of Judges as the warlord that was told by God to bring less soldiers to battle than he had on hand.
So there were thousands of volunteers who wanted to fight, and then he was told he had a test, where he asked his followers to drink water. And by the way that they drank the water he divided them into groups and only took 300 soldiers into battle.
So why is this significant?
Because what Israel is now planning is a massive ground operation in Gaza….
….but they are recalling the story of Gideon from the Bible, because they want to reframe the massive shortage of soldiers that they are facing, as if it’s their own choice. And this is the news that i’m reading in the israeli media…..
Dr. Shir Hever @5:56 minutes:
“…..There are a lot of soldiers, who for a very a large variety of reasons, and I think it is worthwhile to go through these reasons a little bit and to understand why it is so difficult for Israel to field a large ground force in Gaza….
….The fact is they don’t have the numbers.
And those biblical Ministers, you know fundamentalist Ministers of Israel, who believe that Gaza should be permanently colonized, are calling on the Israeli military command to do that just that.
And the supreme commander of the Israeli military, Eyal Zamir, about 3 weeks ago told the cabinet that they should divest themselves of those fantasies of conquering Gaza, because there’s simply not enough soldiers.
And this statement of course made the news, and of course to portray this whole military operation in a different light. They don’t have the ability to do it, unless they plan to kill Palestinians and to fight them, not with conventional weapons but rather with weapons of mass destruction…..
There you have it, to achieve their stated goals, genocide is not a choice, but a military necessity, even at the cost of destroying Israel as a functioning society.
Thanks, good info. This guy Owen Jones, former journalist with the Independent, knows his stuff as well;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7LIHhWz_EyM
Unfortunately, BSA decisions are but a sop to the principle of accountability.
Their silence is more deadly than their lies. Lies can be disproved.
Years ago, (mid 90’s) I remember BSA upholding a complaint from the chiropractor association/governing body here in NZ. This was to do with a documentary where real doctors dared to suggest that chiropractors were dabbling in areas of medicine that they were not trained and couldn’t provide treatment.
“Serving the government of the day”
A government that supports genocide abroad, inevitably ends up supporting repression at home.
Police office’sr violent and “disproportionate” use of force “unjustified” IPCA
“Our job is to serve the government of the day. We respond to the government’s priorities, which is what we have done,” Andrew Coster
When National was in opposition, they vowed to abolish what they called woke policing.
Stuff February 23, 2021
…..Bridges, the party’s justice spokesman, on Tuesday told reporters the commissioner had put being “nice” above “the law of the land and actually catching criminals”. He first labelled the commissioner a “wokester” on Twitter last week.
“What you see is, right from the top, an agency or police force that’s much less about arrest, much less about catching gangs and criminals despite huge problems in our society at the moment, and much more about being hip and doing things to impress a bunch of other wokesters,” he said….
….the pair had a fiery exchange at a select committee hearing over Coster’s policing by consent mantra which the commissioner used to justify his approach to policing.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/politics/350428407/police-commissioner-coster-was-called-wokester-he-says-he-was-serving-government
In a democracy the state. polices us with our consent, when the state doesn’t police us with our consent, it is no longer a democracy. it is a police state.
“Our job is to serve the government of the day. We respond to the government’s priorities, which is what we have done,” Andrew Coster
“Serving” the new National government and responding to the govt’s anti-wokester rhetoric
….The IPCA said police concluded the officer was justified in using pepper spray but they disagreed, saying its use was “disproportionate” and “therefore unjustified”.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/360686152/arrest-and-pepper-spraying-pro-palestine-protester-john-minto-deemed-unlawful?
Yep, he’s a wokester.* The U.S. government has, like all superpowers, developed tech way beyond the reach of their doubting populations. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-14622077/US-government-announces-achieved-ability-manipulate-space-time-new-technology.html
*old enough to bend the rules if justified by using woke think & language
Silence is Compliance
Silence is more deadly than lies, When the media lie, their lies can be disproven. And they can be held to account.
They know this And so have decided it is better to support genocide with silence than with lies.
The media’s silence is more insidious and more dangerous than their deliberate lying.
The BBC has been accused of “political censorship” as it faces increasing pressure to broadcast a film it commissioned about Palestinian doctors working in Gaza…..
…..the documentary, which tells the stories of Palestinian doctors working in Gaza under Israeli bombardment, despite months of editorial reviews and fact-checking.
“….Their urgent stories are being buried by bureaucracy and political censorship,”
“This is not editorial caution. It’s political suppression. The BBC has provided no timeline, no transparency. Such decisions reinforce the systemic devaluation of Palestinian lives in our media.”….
…. the BBC “continues to demonstrate bias in its reporting and coverage of events in Gaza, raising continued concern and criticism about the balance and impartiality of its journalism in this region.”
Health Workers 4 Palestine, a grassroots movement of health workers, said in their statement: “The health workers featured in this documentary have witnessed countless colleagues being killed, and have risked their lives not only to care for their patients, but to document and expose the relentless targeting by Israel of healthcare infrastructure and personnel.”
The production company, Basement Films, said in a statement: “We gathered searing testimony from multiple Palestinian doctors and health care workers…We are desperate for a confirmed release date in order to be able to tell the surviving doctors and medics when their stories will be told.”
A spokesperson for the BBC said: “We are committed to journalism which tells our audiences the stories of this war, including what is happening in Gaza
“This documentary is a powerful piece of reporting and we will broadcast it as soon as possible…..”
Translation: Never
And we can see the same disgraceful bullshit going on in our media here,
Now that they have been caught out lying, they will now strictly stick to saying nothing at all.
Whether it’s cowardice or passive aggressive support for genocide behind their silence. One day in the not too idstant future the genocide deniers and the deliberate genocide ignorers in our media will be as despised as Holocaust deniers are today
https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/bbc-under-increasing-pressure-release-gaza-medics-documentary
BSA decision a warning to broadcasters to avoid Israeli propaganda narratives
And yet it still continues
Dirty tricks at Stuff
Lying by omission is still lying.
Stuff.co reports on the inclusion of Israel in the Eurovision Song Contest despite that country committing mass marder in Gaza.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/culture/360692626/lights-camera-glitter-ball-eurovision-song-contest-reaches-its-grand-final
But omits one vital fact.
Eurovision organisers claim that are not political and neutral.
Exposing the Eurovision organisers as cynical hypocrites and liars is the fact that they banned the Russian Federation from competing over Russia’s war in Ukraine.
But no where in the Stuff article will you learn this vital relevant fact.
….The European Broadcasting Union or EBU, which runs Eurovision, subsequently tightened the contest’s code of conduct, calling on participants to respect Eurovision’s values of “universality, diversity, equality and inclusivity” and its political neutrality…..
(cough) Bullshit
Comments are closed.