Campbell Live quakes show ‘unfair’
Broadcast watchdog upholds Insurance Council complaint of unbalanced reporting
The Broadcasting Standards Authority has upheld a complaint about a Campbell Live episode about unresolved Canterbury earthquake insurance claims four years on from the first earthquake.
The episode of the now-defunct TV3 current affairs show was broadcast live on the fourth anniversary of the September 4, 2010 earthquake from a Christchurch school hall with an audience of several hundred local residents who had unresolved insurance claims.
The Broadcasting Standards Authority (BSA) has upheld the Insurance Council of New Zealand’s (ICNZ) complaint that the programme breached standards of balance and accuracy because it did not include the insurance industry’s perspective and was misleading about the industry’s and ICNZ’s willingness to participate in the programme.
In its decision, the authority noted Campbell Live’s reputation as a “leading current affairs programme” and that the item was of importance not only to the homeowners in question, but to New Zealanders generally.
“The difficulties Cantabrians still face as a result of the Canterbury earthquakes . . . are important issues and legitimate to investigate and report on,” the BSA said.
However, the authority found the programme would not have “enabled viewers to arrive at an informed and reasoned opinion about the progress of the Canterbury recovery” because it did not adequately present an alternative viewpoint to balance the story’s overall message that the insurance industry was “substandard, lamentable and generally failing the people of Canterbury”.
The authority also found it was misleading for the programme to say the insurance industry, and the chief executive of ICNZ in particular, were “not willing to front” as ICNZ had clearly made repeated offers to engage with the programme and to partake in a live interview.
TV3 parent company MediaWorks was ordered to broadcast a statement summarising the upheld aspects of its decision.
The show finished in May after a six-week review period that saw ratings climb.
Fans took to the streets in protest against the possibility Campbell Live might be axed, but were ultimately unable to save it.
Comment was not immediately available from MediaWorks.