BSA Decisions Ngā Whakatau a te Mana Whanonga Kaipāho

Summary  

[This summary does not form part of the decision.] 

The Authority has not upheld a complaint a 1News item breached the discrimination and denigration, and accuracy standards by stating allegations of a ‘white genocide’ in South Africa were a ‘conspiracy theory’ and omitting to include footage shown by United States President Donald Trump to South African President Cyril Ramaphosa. The Authority found the statement and omission of footage were not materially misleading because the ‘white genocide’ allegations have been repeatedly debunked and widely discredited, with numerous sources calling the allegations a ‘conspiracy theory’. The discrimination and denigration standard did not apply.

Not Upheld: Discrimination and Denigration, Accuracy

The broadcast

[1]  The 22 May 2025 broadcast of 1News included an item about United States President Donald Trump’s meeting with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa. The item, in full, was as follows:

1News presenter:      Donald Trump's been involved in another spat in the Oval Office with cameras rolling. This time, the US President confronting South Africa's leader Cyril Ramaphosa over unproven claims about white farmers, all reminiscent of his February clash with Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Here's [1News US correspondent] with what unfolded. 

US correspondent:   It started so well. South African President Cyril Ramaphosa arriving at the White House, hoping to talk trade and tariffs. But what was waiting in the Oval Office was a live, televised ambush, Trump-style. 

Donald Trump:          Generally, they're white farmers and they're fleeing South Africa and it's a very sad thing to see. 

US correspondent:   What Trump's referring to is a conspiracy theory that alleges South Africa is in the throes of a white genocide. 

Trump:                       [Flicking through paper copies of articles] Death, death, death, horrible death. 

[Pointing to a TV] And just put this on. It's right behind you. 

US correspondent:   The South African President's then given a multimedia presentation, Ramaphosa appearing increasingly uncomfortable as he was accused of presiding over a genocidal regime. 

Trump:                       You allow them to take land. 

Cyril Ramaphosa:     No, no, no, no. 

Trump:                       You do allow them to take land. 

Ramaphosa:              Nobody can take the- 

Trump:                       And then when they take the land, they kill the white farmer, and when they kill the white farmer, nothing happens to them. 

Ramaphosa:              No, no, there is quite- 

Trump:                       Nothing happens. 

Ramaphosa:              There is criminality in our country. People who do get killed, unfortunately, through criminal activity, are not only white people.

US correspondent:   Looking on, South African-born Elon Musk, who frequently makes claims about anti-white racist violence. 

What is true is that South Africa has a very high murder rate, but there is no evidence the minority white population is a specific target. That hasn't stopped Trump recently welcoming a group of white South African farmers to America as refugees. 

Trump:                       We have many people that feel they're being persecuted and they're coming to the United States.

US correspondent:   The Oval Office is seen as one of the most powerful rooms in the world and as of late, Donald Trump has been using it to stage loud, televised disagreements with other world leaders on issues that Trump is passionate about - whether those issues are real or not. 

South Africans, unimpressed. 

Civilian:                      It's a new type of diplomacy, right, and it's a Trump show. 

US correspondent:   Ramaphosa’s composed response, though, showing world leaders are learning how to deal with Trump-branded diplomacy. [1News correspondent], 1News, New York.

The complaint

[2]  Fred Carter complained the broadcast breached the discrimination and denigration and accuracy standards of the Code of Broadcasting Standards in New Zealand for the following reasons:

• The broadcast inaccurately claimed:
  • the ‘genocide’ in South Africa of white people, and particularly white farmers, being murdered by black people is a ‘conspiracy theory’; and
  • no white people are being murdered in South Africa.
• Television New Zealand Ltd (TVNZ) ‘deliberately lied and misled the public’ by not including the footage, shown to Ramaphosa during his meeting with Trump, of:
  • ‘hundreds of thousands’ of black South Africans, including members of the South African government, participating in ‘racist death chants’ directed at white South Africans; and
  • ‘miles and miles of crosses representing murdered white farmers’.
• Not including such footage in the broadcast discriminated ‘against all the white people murdered’ in South Africa by ‘racist murderers’.

[3]  On referral to the Authority, the complainant also raised the balance standard. In limited circumstances, the Authority can consider standards not raised in the original complaint where it can be reasonably implied in the wording and where it is reasonably necessary to properly consider the complaint.¹

[4]  The purpose of the balance standard is to ensure competing viewpoints about significant issues are available, to enable the audience to arrive at an informed and reasoned opinion.² Even if the complaint could be reasonably interpreted as raising the balance standard, we do not consider it reasonably necessary to properly determine the complaint, which centres on alleged discrimination and inaccuracy in the broadcast.

[5]  Accordingly, our decision only addresses the discrimination and denigration and accuracy standards.

The broadcaster’s response

[6]  TVNZ did not uphold the complaint for the following reasons:

Discrimination and denigration

• ‘The story comprised factual information and comment, analysis or opinion, which the Standard is not intended to prevent.’ No material in the broadcast expressed a high level of condemnation of any group of people. 
• TVNZ included sections from a PBS News article titled, “Fact-checking Trump’s claims of white farmer ‘genocide’ in South Africa”:³
  • ‘White farmers have been murdered in South Africa. But those murders account for less than 1% of more than 27,000 annual murders nationwide. Experts said the deaths do not amount to genocide,⁴ and Trump misleads about land confiscation.’
  • Comments by Gareth Newham, Head of Justice and Violence Prevention at the Institute for Security Studies (ISS) in South Africa, that these ‘white genocide’ claims are ‘completely false’ and if there was evidence of genocide or ethnically-targeted violence taking place, ‘we [the ISS] would be amongst the first to raise (the) alarm and provide the evidence to the world’.
• ‘The story did not deny that white farmers had been killed in South Africa, rather the disagreement lies in the fact that this amounts to genocide, given that such murders account for less than 1% of more than 27,000 annual murders nationwide.’ 

Accuracy

• It was not misleading for the 1News reporter to call the ‘white genocide’ claims a conspiracy theory. TVNZ outlined extensive sections from a Reuters article⁵ which debunked the allegations and labelled them a ‘conspiracy theory’. TVNZ also reiterated the above sections from the PBS News article.
• The footage of white crosses, which the complainant alleged represented murdered white farmers, ‘was made in September 2020 during a protest against farm murders after two people were killed on their farm a week earlier. The crosses did not mark actual graves. An organiser told South Africa's public broadcaster, SABC, at the time that the wooden crosses represented farmers who had been killed over the years’.
• In addressing footage of the ‘Kill the Boer (farmer)’ song, TVNZ outlined sections from the Reuters article,⁶ including the following:
  The song dates back to the resistance against apartheid, when Afrikaner nationalists controlled the country. In one of the video clips Trump showed, firebrand opposition leader Julius Malema of the Marxist Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) is singing the song.
  Three South African courts have ruled against attempts to have this designated as hate speech, on the basis that it is a historical liberation chant, not a literal incitement to violence.

The standards

[7]  The purpose of the discrimination and denigration standard (standard 4) is to protect sections of the community from verbal and other attacks, and to foster a community commitment to equality.⁷ The standard states:⁸

Broadcast content should not encourage discrimination against, or denigration of, any section of the community on account of sex, sexual orientation, race, age, disability, occupational status or as a consequence of legitimate expression of religion, culture or political belief.

[8]  The purpose of the accuracy standard (standard 6) is to protect the public from being significantly misinformed.⁹ The standard states:¹⁰

• Broadcasters should make reasonable efforts to ensure news, current affairs or factual content:
  • is accurate in relation to all material points of fact
  • does not materially mislead the audience (give a wrong idea or impression of the facts).
• Further, where a material error of fact has occurred, broadcasters should correct it within a reasonable period after they have been put on notice.

Our analysis

[9]  We have watched the broadcast and read the correspondence listed in the Appendix.

[10]  As a starting point, we considered the right to freedom of expression. It is our role to weigh up the right to freedom of expression and the value and public interest in the broadcast, against any harm potentially caused by the broadcast. We may only intervene where the level of harm means that placing a limit on the right to freedom of expression is reasonable and justified.¹¹

Discrimination and denigration

[11]  The discrimination and denigration standard applies only to recognised ‘sections of the community’, consistent with the grounds for discrimination listed in the Human Rights Act 1993.

[12]  The complainant suggested the broadcast, by not including the footage shown to Ramaphosa during his meeting with Trump, discriminated ‘against all the white people murdered’ in South Africa. This group is not a recognised section of the community for the purposes of the standard, and the complainant did not identify a basis on which the broadcast encouraged discrimination against or denigration of any relevant section of the community.

[13]  Accordingly, the discrimination and denigration standard does not apply.

Accuracy

[14]  The complainant submitted the broadcast breached the accuracy standard by:

• stating a ‘white genocide’ allegedly happening in South Africa is a ‘conspiracy theory’
• not including footage of ‘racist death chants’ directed at white South Africans and ‘crosses representing murdered white farmers’
• claiming no white people are being murdered in South Africa.

[15]  Allegations of a ‘white genocide’ in South Africa have been repeatedly debunked and widely discredited,¹² with numerous sources labelling these allegations a ‘conspiracy theory’.¹³ In February 2025, a South African court said claims of a ‘white genocide’ in the country were ‘clearly imagined’ and ‘not real’.¹⁴ Additionally, the complainant offered no evidence supportive of his claims.¹⁵

[16]  Given the many sources outlined above, it was not materially misleading for the item to label these claims a conspiracy theory. Similarly, it was not misleading to omit footage, shown to Ramaphosa by Trump, of the ‘Kill the Boer (farmer)’ song and the Witkruis/White Cross Monument.

[17]  Finally, the broadcast did not claim or suggest no white people are being murdered in South Africa. In contrast, Ramaphosa was shown saying [emphasis added]:

There is criminality in our country. People who do get killed, unfortunately, through criminal activity, are not only white people.

[18]  We therefore do not uphold this complaint under the accuracy standard.

For the above reasons the Authority does not uphold the complaint. 

Signed for and on behalf of the Authority

Susie Staley
Chair
26 August 2025

Appendix

The correspondence listed below was received and considered by the Authority when it determined this complaint:

1  Carter’s original complaint – 22 May 2025

2  TVNZ’s decision – 17 June 2025

3  Carter’s referral to the Authority – 17 June 2025

4  TVNZ’s confirmation of no further comments – 17 June 2025

¹ Attorney General of Samoa v TVWorks Ltd [2012] NZHC 131, [2012] NZAR 407 at [62]
² Commentary, Standard 5, Code of Broadcasting Standards in New Zealand, page 14
³ Amy Sherman “Fact-checking Trump’s claims of white farmer ‘genocide’ in South Africa” PBS News (online ed, 21 May 2025)
⁴ Hannah Grabenstein “WATCH: Trump says U.S. takes refugees of ‘persecution or genocide,’ including Afrikaners” PBS News (online ed, 21 May 2025)
⁵ Tim Cocks and Nellie Peyton “A check of Trump's false claims about white genocide in South Africa” Reuters (online ed, 23 May 2025)
⁶ Tim Cocks and Nellie Peyton “A check of Trump's false claims about white genocide in South Africa” Reuters (online ed, 23 May 2025)
⁷ Commentary, Standard 4, Code of Broadcasting Standards in New Zealand, page 12
⁸ Standard 4, Code of Broadcasting Standards in New Zealand
⁹ Commentary, Standard 6, Code of Broadcasting Standards in New Zealand, page 16
¹⁰ Standard 6, Code of Broadcasting Standards in New Zealand
¹¹ Introduction, Code of Broadcasting Standards in New Zealand, page 4
¹² David Smith “Trump ambushes South African president with video and false claims of anti-white racism” The Guardian (online ed, 21 May 2025); Usaid Siddiqui “Fact check: Do Trump’s ‘white genocide’ claims to Ramaphosa hold up?” Al Jazeera (online ed, 22 May 2025); Wedaeli Chibelushi & Nomsa Maseko “South Africa crime statistics debunk 'white genocide' claims - minister” BBC (online ed, 24 May 2025); Alex Hinton “Trump’s white genocide claims about South Africa have deep roots in American history” The Conversation (online ed, 30 May 2025); Farouk Chothia “Is there a genocide of white South Africans as Trump claims?” BBC (online ed, 3 June 2025); Tim Cocks and Nellie Peyton “A check of Trump's false claims about white genocide in South Africa” Reuters (online ed, 23 May 2025); Amy Sherman “Fact-checking Trump’s claims of white farmer ‘genocide’ in South Africa” PBS News (online ed, 21 May 2025)
¹³ Zolan Kanno-Youngs “Trump Casts Himself as a Protector of Persecuted White People” The New York Times (21 May 2025, online ed); David Smith “Trump ambushes South African president with video and false claims of anti-white racism” The Guardian (online ed, 21 May 2025); Dana Kerr “Musk’s AI Grok bot rants about ‘white genocide’ in South Africa in unrelated chats” The Guardian (online ed, 15 May 2025); ; Tim Cocks and Nellie Peyton “A check of Trump's false claims about white genocide in South Africa” Reuters (online ed, 23 May 2025)
¹⁴ Khanyisile Ngcobo “Claims of white genocide 'not real', South African court rules” BBC (online ed, 26 February 2025)
¹⁵ Genocide, as defined by the United Nations in the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, involves killing, causing serious bodily or mental harm, preventing births, or forcing the transferral of children ‘with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group’.