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The Press Council has rejected a complaint against the Herald brought under fast-track procedures during the election campaign.
Rejecting a complaint about the Herald's coverage last week of Labour's just-announced Job Search Allowance, the council went further and praised the newspaper for not taking a party press release at face value.
It used its fast-track procedures because it believes there is no point giving rulings once the election campaign is over.
Complainant Jenny Kirk, an ex-Labour MP and current party activist, claimed a story and headline on October 31, headlined "PM puts working couples first", was inaccurate and misleading.
She said the package was for all working people, not just working couples.
Ms Kirk, who copied all correspondence on her complaint to Labour party president Mike Williams, said the Herald's reporting "very cleverly obscured and misrepresented the proper meaning of the announced policy".
In an email of complaint to the editor of the Herald Tim Murphy, Ms Kirk said a fact sheet that would have been available to reporters showed that single and married people, solo parents and couples with children were all included.
But Mr Murphy said Ms Kirk had compared a discrepancy between the Herald article and the policy releases and assumed the newspaper was wrong.
The fact sheet Ms Kirk referred to was misleading in that it referred to net and gross figures for every category of worker, giving the impression that the figures were the amounts all workers would get for the allowance, the paper said.
But the allowance was available for 13 weeks only to workers made redundant with a spouse working and was at the same rate as the unemployment benefit. The Prime Minister's office had confirmed that the allowance was for two-income families only.
Mr Murphy said the Herald's Press Gallery staff had complained loudly to the Prime Minister's office about the "misleading nature of the material that was handed out".
"Far from being worthy of a complaint to the Press Council, the Herald coverage of the Job Search Allowance was an excellent example of reporters doing their job properly - not accepting material presented by politicians at face value, and digging further for the facts for our readers," Mr Murphy said.
In its ruling today, The council said: "Newspapers have a duty not to accept political statements or releases at face value, and the Herald acted correctly in subjecting the Job Search Allowance to scrutiny.
"It was entitled to reach the conclusions it did when reporting the initiative, even though it may not have been what the Labour Party would have wished. Without a doubt, the policy is aimed at families on two incomes. Why the press releases showed figures for single workers or solo parents who would not be eligible is something of a mystery."
- NZ HERALD STAFF
