{"id":394877,"date":"2026-04-24T04:37:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-24T04:37:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/394877\/"},"modified":"2026-04-24T04:37:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T04:37:10","slug":"media-insider-national-party-accuses-tvnz-press-gallery-staff-of-pressuring-mp-and-unacceptable-behaviour-tvnz-says-it-has-a-different-view","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/394877\/","title":{"rendered":"Media Insider: National Party accuses TVNZ press gallery staff of pressuring MP and \u2018unacceptable\u2019 behaviour; TVNZ says it has a \u2018different view\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brown wrote on X that TVNZ staff \u201caggressively banged on [Smith\u2019s] door for several minutes, refusing to accept Mr Smith declining to add further to a statement he had already made\u201d.<\/p>\n

Brown did not specify how many TVNZ staff were involved.<\/p>\n

Brown further alleged that TVNZ staff \u201cpressured him [Smith] about how he would be portrayed on Breakfast the following morning if he did not come out to talk to TVNZ\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"TVNZTVNZ political editor Maiki Sherman. Photo \/ Supplied<\/p>\n

A TVNZ spokeswoman said today: \u201cOur journalist was asking questions on behalf of the public, as they do every day. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis story came to light due to leaking from National Party MPs. It was a legitimate story to follow. We look forward to Stuart Smith making himself available to explain his absence from caucus.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said TVNZ had \u201ca different view of what took place\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIrrespective, the correct place for complaints to be raised is with the Speaker of the House, who has authority over these matters, not with TVNZ or on social media. Simeon Brown is well aware of this.\u201d<\/p>\n

Political editor Maiki Sherman, who is part of and leads the TVNZ press gallery team, has also been approached for comment.<\/p>\n

Speaker Gerry Brownlee had seen Brown\u2019s social media post, a spokeswoman for Brownlee said today.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s read the post and is aware of what happened last week, did not have involvement in the complaint being lodged and has no further comment about this.\u201d<\/p>\n

Smith was at the centre of an exclusive report by the NZ Herald last Friday<\/a>. That story reported Smith had earlier been trying to reach the Prime Minister, without success, to discuss with him flagging leadership support from some members of his caucus.<\/p>\n

Smith finally commented on that article this week \u2013 four days later \u2013 and denied trying to contact the Prime Minister.<\/p>\n

Brown said the behaviour of TVNZ was \u201cunacceptable and a clear breach of parliament\u2019s rules\u201d. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe respect the role of media, but there are standards, and those standards matter.<\/p>\n

\u201cNew Zealanders want a fair, balanced and accurate media reporting on the issues that matter to them \u2013 not a media-driven soap opera.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"PrimePrime Minister Christopher Luxon at a parliamentary press conference. Photo \/ Mark Mitchell<\/p>\n

Those comments reflect similar ones made by Prime Minister Christopher Luxon earlier this week when he refused to take questions from reporters after announcing he had won a leadership confidence vote at caucus. <\/p>\n

Luxon said if the media continued to ask him about \u201cspeculation and rumour\u201d he would not respond.<\/p>\n

\u201cKiwis expect the media to ask us the tough questions about our policies, to hold us to account for our pledges to New Zealanders, and to interrogate us about the things that matter to them. They are not interested in the media soap opera,\u201d Luxon said.<\/p>\n

TVNZ\u2019s coverage of the Government also came into the spotlight in late February after a crime story by TVNZ political reporter Benedict Collins.<\/p>\n

Collins\u2019 report focused on gang member numbers in New Zealand and how they now outnumbered police officers.<\/p>\n

While the story was accurate, it raised the ire of Police Minister Mark Mitchell and other Government ministers because Collins had not referenced new data, released that day, showing a drop in violent crime.<\/p>\n

Sherman, who is Collins\u2019 boss, acknowledged the response to Collins\u2019 story was \u201cnot great\u201d and harmed the credibility of the state broadcaster, according to internal emails later released under the Official Information Act.<\/p>\n

Sherman told TVNZ\u2019s news boss at the time that she had seen a Facebook post by Mitchell, in which he took aim at Collins\u2019 story.<\/p>\n

\u201cHaving read the Facebook post and comments, including the scale of engagement on the post, I acknowledge that the situation is not great and that it harms the credibility of our office and organisation, which is disappointing,\u201d Sherman told TVNZ news and current affairs executive editor Phil O\u2019Sullivan, who had referred the Facebook post to her.<\/p>\n

She said she had a conversation with a person \u2013 the name was redacted \u2013 \u201cand gone through where I think the story was lacking in balance\u201d.<\/p>\n

Editor-at-Large Shayne Currie is one of New Zealand\u2019s most experienced senior journalists and media leaders. He has held executive and senior editorial roles at NZME including Managing Editor, NZ Herald Editor and Herald on Sunday Editor and has a small shareholding in NZME.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Brown wrote on X that TVNZ staff \u201caggressively banged on [Smith\u2019s] door for several minutes, refusing to accept…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":394878,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1443,1117,123609,95,27518,44183,7054,9828,1229,22263,6871,42,2936,702,8219,1073,6368,3556,43,1118,4762,204069,49541,172816,17146,312,1516,14446,40,38,41,39,6445,137794,9880,6923,56721,6730],"class_list":["post-394877","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-about","tag-accused","tag-accuses","tag-and","tag-asking","tag-behaviour","tag-breakfast","tag-different","tag-gallery","tag-happened","tag-has","tag-headlines","tag-insider","tag-it","tag-legitimate","tag-media","tag-mp","tag-national","tag-news","tag-of","tag-party","tag-portrayed","tag-press","tag-pressuring","tag-questions","tag-says","tag-staff","tag-stand","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-tvnz","tag-unacceptable","tag-view","tag-what","tag-whip","tag-would"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394877","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=394877"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394877\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/394878"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=394877"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=394877"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=394877"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}