{"id":394992,"date":"2026-04-24T06:23:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-24T06:23:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/394992\/"},"modified":"2026-04-24T06:23:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T06:23:10","slug":"broadcasting-standards-authority-dismisses-complaint-from-right-to-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/394992\/","title":{"rendered":"Broadcasting Standards Authority dismisses complaint from Right to Life"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"RNZ<\/p>\n

\n

Photo: RNZ \/ Samuel Rillstone\n<\/p>\n

The Broadcasting Standards Authority has not upheld a complaint under the balance and accuracy standards about two RNZ National news bulletins reporting on comments by Magma Healthcare Director Dr Simon Snook about the increase of abortions in 2024.<\/p>\n

In both broadcasts, Dr Snook attributed the increase in abortions to the increased availability of abortion services.<\/p>\n

Ken Orr of the Right to Life New Zealand claimed the broadcasts were unbalanced as they only featured Dr Snook’s comments, and Snook’s description of abortions as ‘care’ was inaccurate.<\/p>\n

The Authority found the brief, straightforward items did not amount to ‘discussions’ of a ‘controversial issue of public importance’ for the purposes of the balance standard.<\/p>\n

It also found Dr Snook’s use of the term ‘care’ was unlikely to mislead the audience.<\/p>\n

The full decision can be read here: Right to Life New Zealand Inc and Radio New Zealand Ltd – 2026-005 (22 April 2026)<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Photo: RNZ \/ Samuel Rillstone The Broadcasting Standards Authority has not upheld a complaint under the balance and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":379372,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[48,47,111,43,139,69,49,46,44,45],"class_list":["post-394992","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-audio","tag-current-affairs","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-podcasts","tag-public-radio","tag-radio-new-zealand","tag-rnz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394992","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=394992"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394992\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/379372"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=394992"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=394992"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=394992"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}