Radio NZ's anonymous Benson-Pope interview ruled unfair

David Benson-Pope

The Broadcasting Standards Authority (BSA) has rapped Radio New Zealand over the knuckles for allowing an anonymous interviewee to say Labour MP David Benson-Pope had bullied school students when he was a teacher.

The BSA upheld Mr Benson-Pope's complaint that a Nine to Noon interview on May 13, 2005 was unfair, and ordered the broadcaster to pay $5000 costs to Mr Benson-Pope and another $2000 costs to the Crown.

Radio NZ will also have to broadcast a statement of the decision, but the authority stopped short of ordering it to broadcast an apology to Mr Benson-Pope

A separate complaint against TVNZ's One News was not upheld.

The Radio NZ complaint stemmed from allegations made in Parliament by Act MP Rodney Hide and National's Judith Collins that Mr Benson-Pope had bullied students during his time as a teacher a Dunedin's Bayfield High School in the 1980s.

The allegations included claims that Mr Benson-Pope, Associate Minister of Education at the time the allegations were aired, had caned students too hard, thrown tennis balls at them, jammed tennis balls in mouths as punishment, and smacked a student with the back of his hand, making the student's nose bleed.

On Nine to Noon, an anonymous man said Mr Benson-Pope had picked on him as a student, caned him until he drew blood, and enjoyed giving corporal punishment -- laughing as he caned.

He called Mr Benson-Pope a "nasty bastard".

Mr Benson-Pope complained that the allegations were anonymous, were never tested for validity or credibility, and were presented as facts rather than allegations.

He was also upset the broadcaster said on air he had refused to be interviewed when he had actually said was unavailable because of ministerial responsibilities.

In response to the authority, Radio New Zealand said it had gone to some lengths to verify the credibility of the interviewee, and that its report was balanced and fair.

But BSA today upheld the complaint the interview was unfair, saying there was an "absence of any serious challenge" to the interviewee's statements.

It said: "The interviewee was allowed to make serious and unchecked allegations that Mr Benson-Pope was guilty of criminal conduct in relation to other students."

BSA said allowing the interviewee to remain anonymous deprived Mr Benson-Pope of information to challenge the man's credibility.

'Nasty'

"In effect, the interviewee was allowed to attack Mr Benson-Pope, characterising him as 'nasty', 'bullying' and 'a liar', while the interviewee's own credibility was protected by anonymity."

There was no "reasonable basis" to give the interviewee anonymity.

It was also not revealed on air that Mr Hide had provided the interviewee to Radio New Zealand, information which the BSA said would have meant the public listened with more scepticism.

"The impact of his allegations would have been substantially lessened," it said.

The BSA did not uphold the complaint the programme was unbalanced, saying Radio New Zealand had provided sufficient other points of view supporting Mr Benson-Pope.

It declined to determine whether the programme was inaccurate -- it said it did not have sufficient information.

Mr Benson-Pope's lawyers submitted costs of $20,413.99 for the complaint but BSA said $5000 was a reasonable contribution for Radio New Zealand to make.

In November, police announced they would not be prosecuting Mr Benson-Pope over the alleged Bayfield incidents.

Police did find a prima facie case against him concerning an event where a student's hands were allegedly taped to the desk while he had a tennis ball in his mouth and another event involving a student allegedly being struck on the face.

One News

In its second Benson-Pope decision released today, BSA found that a February 2006 One News items which aired allegations he had treated female Bayfield High School students inappropriately was not unbalanced, unfair, or inaccurate.

BSA found One News had gone to some lengths to present Mr Benson-Pope's perspective of the events.

The item was neither misleading nor inaccurate, BSA said.

The allegations had included Mr Benson-Pope stared at female students' legs and made them stand outside at a school camp at night wearing just nighties.

He complained to BSA the One News item implied he had a "lewd" motive.

Mr Benson-Pope today declined to comment on the BSA decisions.

- NZPA