Media Minister Paul Goldsmith has confirmed TVNZ board chairperson Andrew Barclay raised 1News' reporting on crime statistics during a phone call over the weekend.
Speaking to media at Parliament today, Goldsmith said Barclay had brought up the story "in passing" as part of a wider-ranging conversation – but said he did not engage on the matter.
Questioning over the minister's interactions with the broadcaster stems from a 1News story aired on the broadcaster's 6pm bulletin last Thursday, which focused on gang membership numbers rising to outnumber police on a day that the Government heralded a reduction in the number of violent crime victims.
The coverage drew strong criticism from coalition ministers, including Police Minister Mark Mitchell and Goldsmith, who is also the Justice Minister.
"I had a call from a board member on a range of matters, and this came up in passing, but I haven't raised the issue … he raised it in passing, and like I say, we didn't carry on the conversation," Goldsmith told reporters today.
"It is not appropriate for me to be talking about political discussions and editorial matters with the board, and I haven't."
Goldsmith described the exchange as brief and said Barclay had raised the story "in passing" during a call about other matters.
Asked how long the discussion about the story had lasted, the Media Minister said he could not say exactly, but that "it was very short", and said the pair then "moved on".
"I just said, 'well that's not for me to discuss', and then we moved on to other issues."
The conversation took place before TVNZ, which also publishes 1News.co.nz, aired a second story on the topic on Tuesday night.
TVNZ said tonight that editorial independence was of paramount importance and "operational decisions on how stories are covered are our own".
Labour leader Chris Hipkins said that if, hypothetically, any board member had been involved in TVNZ's decision to air the additional story, "that member of the board needs to resign immediately" and the broadcaster needed to be transparent with the public.
Goldsmith said he had separately contacted TVNZ journalists directly to raise concerns about the original story, which he described as something he did regularly when unhappy with coverage.
"We certainly do remonstrate and argue with journalists over stories, and we do that on a regular basis," he said.
He refused to say whether Barclay had indicated any discomfort with the story, saying: "I'm not going to go into conversations that I had with the board."
Goldsmith said he had not kept any notes of the call.
Police Minister Mark Mitchell stood by his social media posts criticising the original TVNZ coverage when asked by media earlier today. Mitchell said he had received an apology from a "senior member" at TVNZ over the Thursday story.
When asked, Goldsmith said he was absolutely confident the Government was behaving appropriately in relation to the issue.
A TVNZ spokesperson said tonight: “TVNZ’s Political Editor contacted Minister Mitchell’s office the morning after the 1News gang numbers story to advise that victim-of-crime data should have been included.
“The story was then reviewed internally, and the editorial decision was made to run a follow-up story incorporating those figures to ensure balanced coverage and to aid audience understanding around the use of differing crime statistics. The resulting piece ran last night.
“TVNZ’s Board Chair and the Minister talk regularly. TVNZ’s board directors also take an interest in how editorial standards are maintained. But editorial independence is of paramount importance to us and operational decisions on how stories are covered are our own,” the spokesperson said.
TVNZ is a Crown entity company but has long been funded commercially with its editorial independence enshrined in the Television New Zealand Act 2003 — meaning it operates with freedom from political interference.
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