Comment fails to breach media
standards
During a live broadcast from Riccarton Park racecourse,
one of the hosts of the ZM drive show said to her cohosts, “You’ve obviously watched the race. I know you
haven’t put any bets on because you’re both Jews.” The
Broadcasting Standards Authority did not uphold the
complaint saying that while the comment was ignorant
and perpetuated stereotypes it did not reach the high
threshold necessary for encouraging the denigration of, or
discrimination against, Jewish people as a section of the
community.
Press Council uphold race complaints
The Press Council upheld a complaint that a Waikato Times
article placed unnecessary emphasis on the race of two
men found guilty of rape. The men were described by the
paper as being of Fijian-Indian descent. The Council upheld
the complaint that the pair’s ethnicity was of no relevance
to their crime and reference to it was gratuitous.
It also firmly criticised an article in The Press (Weekend)
newspaper which implied that an increase in chlamydia
in the Canterbury region was linked to Irish workers. The
Council said that the link between Irish nationals and the
sexual health statistics was of the newspaper’s making and
not supported by any reported information. It also said that
a cartoon accompanying the article was inappropriate and
offensive to many.
Tüi Tüi Tuituiä | Race Relations in 2013
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