Radio waves
Minister Clare Curran denies trying to push state broadcaster ‘in any direction’ as Hirschfeld quits RNZ role
Broadcasting Minister Clare Curran insists she was not trying to push Radio NZ in any editorial direction during her meeting with Carol Hirschfeld, whose resignation yesterday followed months of denying that the meeting was pre-arranged.
Hirschfeld repeatedly told Radio NZ bosses over a four-month period that the meeting was a chance encounter, despite it being recorded in the minister’s diary for five days before the meeting, and two attempts by the minister to tell Radio NZ that Hirschfeld was wrong.
The whole episode unravelled yesterday with Hirschfeld’s resignation as head of RNZ content, Curran’s admission of wrongdoing, and Opposition leader Simon Bridges questioning Curran’s integrity.
“It’s hard for New Zealanders, frankly, to believe a word she says,” Bridges said.
The issue became political after Curran said the meeting was “unofficial” and excluded it from a list of meetings that she provided in response to a parliamentary question. Yesterday she said she made a mistake and should have included it from the beginning.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern stood by Curran, saying she had corrected the record — though it had taken two-and-a-half months and she should have done it sooner.
Curran remains in the spotlight for what was said in the meeting and whether it could be seen as an attempt to influence the editorial direction of the state broadcaster, which is set to receive $38 million in government funding to set up RNZ Plus.
Curran called it a “high-level discussion” about the state of the media and Radio NZ’s future, but a spokes- woman late last night insisted that “the minister was not trying to push RNZ in any direction”.
Ardern also said Curran had assured her there was nothing inappropriate in her talk with Hirschfeld.
Curran also defended her decision not to set the record straight publicly when she found out on March 1 — after a meeting with RNZ bosses — that Hirschfeld was calling it a chance encounter. She said her office contacted RNZ immediately to correct Hirschfeld. “It then became a matter for RNZ to deal with.”
RNZ bosses asked Hirschfeld about the matter again and she reassured them it was a chance meeting.
Curran said her office again contacted Radio NZ earlier this week to say it was a pre-arranged meeting. On Sunday, Hirschfeld admitted the meeting was pre-planned, leading to her resignation yesterday.
Curran said she may have been naive to hold the meeting, and would not have held it if she had known about RNZ protocols about meetings.
Asked why Hirschfeld persisted in describing it as a chance meeting, Curran said: “You’d have to ask her.”
Yesterday Hirschfeld went to ground, but in a statement, Radio NZ
chair Richard Griffin and chief executive Paul Thompson said they were “very disappointed”.
Based on what Hirschfeld had told them, Griffin and Thompson inadvertently misled a parliamentary select committee on March 1, telling MPs that Hirschfeld had been at the gym when she chanced upon Curran.
Curran was first asked about her meetings with Radio NZ staff on December 7. She did not list her meeting with Hirschfeld, and corrected her answer after being grilled about the meeting during Question Time on February 20.
Bridges said Curran was in “real trouble” for misleading Parliament in her original answer, but he stopped short of saying she should resign.
“This was in her diary. She left that out [ of her written answer]. We’re then left with the impression of something informal, something coincidental. That was patently false.”
Ardern said she had full confidence in Curran. “She corrected the record. It just shouldn’t have taken so long.”
The economic development, science and innovation committee also released its 2016/17 annual review of Radio NZ yesterday.
“RNZ told us that the Minister of Broadcasting . . . does not have an influence on the content it produces,” the report states. “The protocols around meeting with ministers and political transparency have been clearly outlined to senior members of staff since the incident.”