Sean Plunket appeals ERA decision

Radio New Zealand (RNZ) Morning Report presenter Sean Plunket has appealed an Employment Relations Authority decision that stopped him from writing a column in Metro magazine or to moderate political debates for TVNZ and TVNZ7.

Plunket took his employer to the authority after it refused him permission to do the extra work outside of his broadcasting role.

He maintained RNZ was in breach of the Bill of Rights Act in preventing him undertaking outside opportunities.

RNZ was purporting to control his spare time, and curtailing his fundamental freedoms, he said.

But in a decision released last month, authority member Denis Asher found RNZ had the right to decide if Plunket's activities could be deemed an "actual or potential" conflict of interest.

In the Wellington hearing in October, RNZ chief executive Peter Cavanagh said a political column could lessen Plunket's perceived objectivity as a Morning Report host.

Hosting a TVNZ7 debate on internet policy and copyright issues during election coverage could have confused viewers, and RNZ needed "all hands on deck" for their own election coverage, Mr Cavanagh said.

Plunket told the authority Mr Cavanagh had told him he was part of the broadcaster's "brand", as though "anything I said or did anywhere would reflect on Radio New Zealand".

RNZ had 28 days to respond to the appeal.

- NZPA