Kia ora koutou, I hope everyone is staying warm and well. Hopefully this email strikes the right balance (dad joke). Of the 11 broadcasting standards, balance is consistently among the most complained about. This has certainly been the case in the past year, with elections here and in the US. But how does the BSA decide if a broadcast is balanced? It’s more complex than many might think. To gain feedback on how we apply the standard, we invited independent media law expert Emeritus Professor John Burrows to carry out an external review of five BSA decisionsopen_in_new. These involved diverse subjects including the US presidential election, climate change and the Christchurch mosque attacks. As part of his review, Prof Burrows examined underlying questions such as what’s of public importance to New Zealanders and what is a discussion for the purposes of the standard. Prof Burrows agreed that all decisions reached ‘good and workable conclusions’, while noting the challenges of interpreting a 1989 Act in 2021. He encouraged the BSA to consider the ‘balance between clarity and brevity’ and refer to more previous cases. We’ll take the recommendations into account in future decisions and in our Codebook review. You can read the research for yourself hereopen_in_new. Ngā mihi nui Glen Chief Executive |