If it isn’t obvious, media is something near and dear to my heart. It’s my life blood – I enjoy the chaos of it and the role it plays in keeping others accountable. That’s why I was interested to hear that the Broadcasting Standards Authority (BSA) and its associated legislation had recently come under fire, and what it means for the state of media generally.
What happened was that the BSA heard a complaint about a guy called Sean Plunket, who reportedly made comments describing tikanga Māori as “mumbo jumbo” on The Platform. The Platform is described as an “independent media space” where you can “receive and impart views and opinions the mainstream media simply cannot handle”. They basically just post podcasts and opinion pieces.
The BSA reckoned that The Platform was something they were entitled to regulate as a broadcaster, saying that it thought posting about media stuff on the internet in podcast form counted as transmission via telecommunications. Linking back to the chaoticism and fast modernisation of media, the BSA also thought letting The Platform off the hook would be counterintuitive, as they viewed their empowering legislation as being designed to make sure broadcasting still had standards at a time of “deregulation and rapidly evolving technology.” I’m not sure if there was much regulation to deregulate, but okay. For context, their legislation hasn’t been updated since 1989, but the BSA regularly updates the list of things that aren’t okay to say over broadcast (like racist remarks) to keep up to date with the latest offensive lingo.
The BSA’s decision to even take up the complaint was met with absolute fury. Some commentators have basically said that the BSA was acting out of line, stretching their empowering legislation that was originally meant for TV and radio regulation as far as possible to ‘catch’ The Platform. Others have suggested scrapping the BSA and the legislation that gives them power all together – full on deregulation. In its decision about Plunket, the BSA itself said it’s been calling with increasing urgency for Parliament to update their legislation for the past 20 years. So, do we update the regulation, or deregulate all together?
In favour of deregulation is free speech, I guess. In any event, that’s the opinion of the ACT party, who has a private member’s bill to abolish the BSA, which Winston Peters hinted that NZ First would support. In an interview with Plunket, Winny accused the BSA of “bordering on fascist” in hearing the complaint about Plunket’s Platform. “It's a creature of 1989,” David Seymour told reporters on a separate occasion. “[From] before the internet existed – we live in a different world today and it's clearly overstepping its mandate.”
I don’t think the BSA is fascist or overstepping its mandate. With media appearing in forms from print to podcast to video, trying to restrict it all to one neat definition is no easy task – and that’s what the BSA grappled with. No matter what you wanna call it, online media is a prevalent kind of consumption, shaping our everyday literacy of the world around us – and I don’t think complete deregulation is the answer. We need something to ensure what we consume is fair, reasonable and accurate.
In terms of that something, the Government has indicated in the past that it might be better to replace the BSA with something which regulates all “professional media”. In response, the BSA has said that they “welcomed” this proposal, potentially a bit tired of being told that they’re fucking shit at thier job. In my opinion, it would be quite good to have the BSA transition to something like the New Zealand Media Council, which has voluntary membership from the media industry, such as Critic Te Ārohi. It mainly hears complaints about bias and inaccuracy, reviewing all forms of media: newspapers, magazines, websites. There’s some crossover between the BSA and NZMC, as many outlets broadcast and write content. As far as I can tell, The Platform is not a member of the NZMC – which I theorise might be why the BSA felt under the pump to ‘catch’ The Platform.
Whatever the case, I urge everyone to stay in the loop with what’s happening in terms of media regulation, as it will affect how we understand the world around us. In the meantime, try cutting the BSA some slack (it’s not a job I’d wanna be doing right now) and advocate for responsible media regulation instead.
