NBR withdraws allegation that Dick Hubbard lied

The National Business Review has withdrawn the allegation that Auckland City Mayor Dick Hubbard lied on a television interview during last year's local body elections and has donated an unknown amount to a charity of Mr Hubbard's choice.

The action comes nearly a year to the day after the business newspaper ran nine highly critical articles over five pages about Mr Hubbard, who accused the paper of a "hatchet job" and took legal steps to sue it.

In a statement appearing on the front page today, the paper said it "misconstrued" Mr Hubbard's statement on TVOne's Face to Face with Kim Hill about triple bottom line accounting for his cereal company, Hubbard Foods.

Under the headline "Hubbard's triple bottom lie", the NBR said on September 17 last year that Mr Hubbard had deceived the nation by falsely claiming his company had produced two triple bottom line corporate social responsibility reports when he produced only one, in 2001.

The NBR articles were given to Brian Nicolle, an Act Party figure running Mayor John Banks' campaign, and distributed in a reprinted form in letterboxes around the city.

Mr Nicolle initially denied distributing them, but later resigned for "facilitating" their distribution.

The NBR today says Mr Hubbard's statement was "misconstrued and that he did not intend to represent that his company prepared two triple bottom line reports.

"NBR withdraws any implication that Mr Hubbard deliberately attempted to deceive the viewers of the television interview. Mr Hubbard's court proceedings have been settled in a mutually satisfactory manner by NBR making a donation to a charity of Mr Hubbard's choice," the statement says.

Mr Hubbard last night refused to comment about the year-long battle with NBR, owned by the flamboyant publisher and Business Roundtable member Barry Colman.

In a prepared statement, Mr Hubbard said: "The dispute has been amicably resolved and the parties have agreed to make no further comment."

The editor in chief of NBR, Nevil Gibson, who said on September 30 last year that the paper stood by its reporting and would vigorously defend its position against any legal action, said last night: "The nub of the defamation action was around the word 'lie'. We misconstrued what he had said on television against what he told us in an interview."

* Mr Nicolle was cleared by the police of any wrongdoing.