A complaint that the Herald's coverage of the Chatham Islands' Millennium celebration was unfair and unbalanced has not been upheld by the Press Council.
A member of the Chatham Islands Millennium Trust, R. J. Clough, complained that coverage of the event was patronising and led to "widespread feelings of helpless anger in our community."
One of the articles looked at the antics of a youth who was to greet the dawn by blowing a conch, but was drunk and incapable when the time came. The article said he was "alleged to be so inebriated by the time the sun rose that it was unclear whether he was going to blow the giant shell or vomit into it."
The council found that a Herald article printed on December 31 was objective and positive, reflecting the Islanders' wariness of outsiders.
"A further report on the lead-up to and actual ceremonies held on Mt Rangaika on the main island was warm, balanced and entirely sympathetic."
A report written by an English journalist and published in the Herald on January 8 was "so plainly for consumption by a distant London readership that it is difficult to put into the New Zealand context."
Islanders might have been irritated that visiting reporters did not come to terms with the merits of their community, the council said, but "in this case it can find no fault in the reporting of the Herald."
Watchdog backs Herald reports
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