BSA Annual Report 2004
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BSA ANNUAL REPORT for the year ended 30 June 2004 Broadcasting Standards Authority Te Mana Whanonga Kaipaho BSA Broadcasting Standards Authority Te Mana Whanonga Kaipaho BROADCASTING STANDARDS AUTHORITY ANNUAL REPORT For the year ended 30 June 2004 BSA Broadcasting Standards Authority Te Mana Whanonga Kaipaho ................. ................... .................. .......... ........... ......... ........ ....... ...4,5 ...... ...... ..... ..... ..... .... .... .... nt. me ate St ion ............................................. ss ........... .......... i ........ ......... M ....... ...... ...... .4,5 ...... ..... ..... ..... .... .... .... .... s.. er mb ............................... e ............. ............. 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S ..... – .... .... ... ..... of Financial Perf ..2 ement orman 6 Stat ce.. ..... – .... .... ... ... Analysis of Decis .... dix I: ions. ... pen ..... .2 Ap ..... 7 ..... .... .... II: Complaints ... pendix determ ... Ap ine ... d b ... y th .3 e A 4 ut ho ri ty. ... .. .3 6 pursuant to clause 14 of the First Schedule of the Broadcasting Act 1989. Submitted to the Minister of Broadcasting for presentation to the House of Representatives koromakinga Ki te whakatenatena i te hunga p p ho ki te whakawhanake me te pupuri i ng paerewa e whakanui ana i te mana tangata, e whakaata ana i ng uara papori o nei r , me te aro ki ng putanga rangahau, i a r tou e whakarato ana i tetahi h tepe hei whakatau i ng nawe mai i te iwi wh nui e p ana ki ng paerewa p p ho. Joanne Morris Tapu Misa Joanne Morris was appointed Chair of the Tapu Misa first joined the Authority in Authority in October 2003. Formerly an December 2002, and was reappointed for academic lawyer and Law Commissioner, a three year term in June 2004. Tapu also Joanne was also a member of the Authority serves on the Board of the Pacific for five years from its establishment in Foundation, which works for and with 1989. Currently, Joanne is a member of children, young people and families to break the Waitangi Tribunal, a position she has the cycle of disadvantage through education; held for 15 years, and until recently was and is a trustee of the Mana Trust, a on the board of the Legal Services Agency. charitable organisation working through the She and her husband have two teenage news media to ensure New Zealanders are children. better informed about Maori and Pacific people, events and issues. Tapu is a freelance journalist who currently writes a weekly column for the New Zealand Herald. She is members married with three children, and lives in Auckland. 45 mission statement To encourage broadcasters to develop and maintain programme standards which respect human dignity, reflect current social values and acknowledge research findings, while providing a process for the consideration of complaints from the public about broadcasting standards. Diane Musgrave Paul France Diane Musgrave was appointed as a member Paul France was appointed to the Authority of the Authority for a three year term in in December 2003 as the broadcasting December 2003. She had served in an industry representative. Paul worked at interim capacity since August 2003. Diane TVNZ in news and current affairs in the is the community representative on the BSA 1970s and 1980s including in the role of with a special interest in the perspectives Northern Editor of Current Affairs. He of public interest groups and young people produced the Eye Witness News late-night in relation to broadcasting. She is a mentor edition during the tumultuous political years for the YWCA Future Leaders programme, of the 1980s. More recently, he was CEO a senior lecturer in Communication Studies of Asia Business News and CNBC Asia, and at Auckland University of Technology, and a served on the Singapore Broadcasting former television producer and director. Authority. The Broadcasting Standards Authority ANNUAL REPORT 2004 5 am honoured to make my first report as chair of the Broadcasting Standards Authority. My predecessor, Peter Cartwright, left the Authority in September 2003 and I pay tribute to the dedication and skill that characterised his term as chair. While new to this role, I am not new to the Authority, having been one of its foundation members from 1989 until 1994. The core of the Authority’s work has not changed a great deal in the intervening years. The Broadcasting Act 1989 and its directions to us are largely the same, and the Codes of Broadcasting Practice, some with revisions made over the years, still clearly set out the broadcast media’s rights as well as their responsibilities. the Among the most testing of standards issues faced by the Authority now and in the past are those of balance, fairness and accuracy. These require careful attention both to the media’s right to report chair’s freely and the audience’s right to challenge the resulting representations of events. We have dealt with several important complaints about report these standards this year and more are on the horizon. In my view, these are some of the most important issues we consider as they often touch on fundamental aspects of life in a modern democracy. New situations giving rise to complaints of breach of privacy continue to present themselves for consideration. Decisions are guided by the privacy principles that the Authority has evolved over the years. Recently, we hosted a small ‘round table’ session at which Authority members and television executives discussed the clarity and adequacy of the principles as well as the implications of a recent Court of Appeal decision about the common law of privacy. As a result, we will soon issue a discussion paper identifying possible changes to the privacy principles. In September 2004, the Authority launched a monograph on various privacy issues, Real Media, Real People, which we hope will add new and accessible information to this important field. A significant issue that emerged this year concerns programme promotions (promos) screened by free-to-air television broadcasters. In a decision issued in December 2003, the Authority upheld a complaint against a PGR-classified promo that was screened during a 6pm news bulletin. We reasoned that although news programmes themselves are not classified, the time band in which the 6pm news is broadcast is G-classified and, therefore, promos broadcast in that time must comply with the G classification.The decision caused concern among affected broadcasters who advised that it has been their practice for some time to screen PGR-classified promos (and advertisements) in the early evening news. Their reasoning is that the news is unclassified and therefore other material broadcast during the early evening news need not comply with the underlying G classification. 6 The most obvious change in the work of the “Authority over the years has been the increase in the complexity of complaints. Indeed, it is to the great credit of all involved that the Authority has not developed a serious complaints backlog.” Clearly, the Authority’s and broadcasters’ interpretations of the Among those changes, the constant has been Tapu Misa who programme classifications contained in Appendix 1 of the Free to was reappointed during the year having been first appointed in 2002. Air Television Code of Broadcasting Practice are at odds. As a first The result is that the Authority now has three members with extensive step towards negotiating a solution, the Authority called a meeting media experience, including two whose careers have been spent with affected broadcasters and industry associations. We hope to largely in television. resolve the matter, after consultation with interested parties, in the We have worked together since February and feel that, as a year ahead. group, we have ‘found our feet’ very quickly. We have developed an The most obvious change in the work of the Authority over the open and effective way of considering and debating the range of issues years has been the increase in the complexity of complaints. Indeed, that confronts us each month. We believe that, with our individual it is to the great credit of all involved that the Authority has not attributes and group strength, we are well-equipped to enhance our developed a serious complaints backlog. Increasingly, however, we relationships with all stakeholders in order to further our common have difficulty maintaining our timeliness standard and I am very interest in the maintenance of broadcasting standards. pleased to report that during the past few months, led by our new Plainly, it is vital that the Authority remains well-informed about Chief Executive, considerable energy has been devoted to evaluating the environment