Newstalk ZB host Heather du Plessis-Allan 'ridiculed' teen during interview - BSA

Tuesday, 28 February 2023

Left: School Strike 4 Climate organiser Izzy Cook interviewed on 1 News, on September 23 (Screengrab), and television presenter Heather du Plessis-Allan (Ross Giblin/ Stuff).

NZME was correct to uphold a complaint about Heather du Plessis-Allan’s interview with a teenage climate activist on its Newstalk ZB Drive show, the Broadcasting Standards Authority (BSA) has found.

The BSA said du Plessis-Allan “ridiculed” 16-year-old interviewee Izzy Cook, a climate activist and Schools Strike for Climate (SS4C) organiser.

During the interview in September 2022, Cook admitted she had recently travelled to Fiji, despite one of her group’s demands being a ban on “unnecessary air travel”.

Du Plessis-Allans’ reaction to Cook was “hysterically laughing at, and teasing the interviewee for over a minute”, the BSA said.

School Strike 4 Climate Wellington's Izzy Cook attends the 2021 climate protest.

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More than 1000 climate activists at the latest School Strike 4 Climate in Christchurch demanded 'more radical' action on climate change from elected representatives. (First published September 23, 2022)

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The complaints against du Plessis-Allan’s broadcast said the interview breached the fairness, offensive and disturbing content, children’s interests, and discrimination and denigration standards.

NZME agreed that because of Cook’s age and potential vulnerability, the interview did breach the fairness standard.

The company acknowledged the breach immediately and upheld the complaints by apologising to Cook and advised du Plessis-Allan had apologised to Cook in private, the BSA noted.*

Those who complained did not think the response was good enough and sent their complaints on to the BSA.

The BSA concluded it also would have found a breach in the fairness standard.

“We acknowledge there was foreseeable harm in the form of embarrassment in the moment for the activist, and further ridiculing/bullying online,” it said in a decision released on Tuesday.

“The apology on air did not appear genuine and was used as an opportunity to further mock and criticise the interviewee.

“Overall, we found the interview went further than simply critiquing and questioning SS4C’s policies and the interviewee’s alleged hypocrisy, and instead amounted to ridicule, which was unfair.”

The BSA decided NZME had done enough to address the breach.

*Correction: A previous version of this article said NZME advised du Plessis-Allan to apologise in private to Cook. In fact, NZME was advising the BSA that du Plessis-Allan had apologised already.