Inappropriate RNZ edits review expands to China, Israel stories
Tuesday, 13 June 2023
There’s a growing scandal at RNZ, the national broadcaster, which has announced an external review of its online editing processes after Pro-Kremlin edits appeared on its site. Charlie Mitchell reports.
The scope of inappropriate editing of wire stories that appeared on RNZ's website seems to be beyond stories about Russia and Ukraine.
RNZ has stood down Mick Hall, a digital producer for the company, while it combs through thousands of stories he may have been involved in publishing.
Around 20 stories have been publicly identified thus far in an audit. On Tuesday, the audit found an inappropriately edited statement about China and Taiwan, the first example of an altered story not directly concerning Russia.
Stuff has identified several other stories published on RNZ that have been altered from the original wire copy, on topics including the Israel-Palestine conflict. Stuff has not confirmed whether Hall was responsible for those edits.
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* RNZ saga may be related to disinformation from overseas, says security analyst
* RNZ orders external review over pro-Russian story edits
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Many of the changes were minor but in some cases significantly changed the balance or emphasis of the story, some of which appeared under other journalists’ bylines.
Hall – who Stuff has been unable to reach for comment – reportedly told RNZ he had been making such edits throughout his five-year employment.
Some stories appeared on the website in an altered form for weeks or months. In several cases, the edits included significant spelling and grammar errors yet remained uncorrected and seemingly unnoticed.
It’s understood that because Hall worked remotely, often on late shifts, there was less oversight of his work than might otherwise be expected. It also meant his personal views were not widely known by his colleagues.
Hall told one associate, however, that his personal Facebook account had been banned for commenting on the “NATO-US proxy war” in Ukraine. A story he wrote under his own byline last year drew complaints from a Ukrainian group for being unbalanced.
While the extent of the edits remains unclear, an analysis of those identified so far shows they became increasingly brazen over time.
What began as minor additions or subtractions evolved into more significant story changes, eventually leading to their detection last week.
RNZ has added notes to the offending articles, most of which describe the changes that were made. Those notes seem to be being updated as the audit continues.
RNZ did not respond to questions before deadline, but its chief executive, Paul Thompson, said on Monday the saga raised issues about how the outlet edits online news.
“It is so disappointing, I’m gutted, it’s painful … We have to get to the bottom of how it happened,” he said.
Russia/Ukraine
The most significant edits concern Russia’s war on Ukraine.
A story published last week about the destruction of the Nova Kakhovka dam in Ukraine – which RNZ noted had been edited to refer to the 2014 Maidan revolution as a coup – was substantially altered to downplay or remove suggestions that Russia might be responsible.
The original Reuters text detailed the experience of a Ukrainian village affected by flooding and quoted one resident blaming Russia. On RNZ, the paragraphs were deleted and replaced with text from a different Reuters story describing the flooding impacts on the Russian-occupied side.
A line in the Reuters text noting Russian soldiers were threatening civilians was removed, as was a quote from an American official questioning why Ukraine would destroy the dam.
A quote from a Russian official blaming Ukraine from the other Reuters story was added, along with several grammatical errors.
(As of writing, it is unknown who destroyed the dam).
The above is precisely what was added to the article.
On another occasion, a story published by Hall appeared to merge content from three Reuters articles, altering the article's thrust.
The original story detailed a Ukrainian commander’s visit to forces on the frontline.
The RNZ story inserted copy from two other Reuters stories; one about Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy firing a senior military commander, and another quoting senior Russian official Dmitry Medvedev warning of a potential nuclear apocalypse if Western backing of Ukraine continued.
Other stories produced by Hall either removed text from the original or made subtle wording changes.
In a story published in March about Putin’s plan to station nuclear weapons in Belarus, a statement from the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons calling it an “extremely dangerous escalation' was removed from the RNZ version.
In another Reuters story published by Hall, the opening three lines were altered in a way that softened language critical of Russia and its president, Vladimir Putin.
Wording around the events leading to Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea was changed numerous times, usually to insert the words “neo-Nazi” or “US-backed” to descriptions of the area’s leaders prior to annexation.
In one example, published on RNZ in February, the following statement was added to wire copy from Reuters: “Russian speaking minorities in eastern Ukraine faced a genocide perpetrated by neo-Nazi state paramilitaries who had been used in a US-backed coup in 2014, and that the Minsk Peace accords, designed to give the Donbass wider autonomy and protection, had not implemented.”
Israel
It’s understood concerns are expanding into other subjects where inappropriate edits appear to have occurred without notice.
Stuff has identified several other RNZ stories that have been altered from the original wire copy.
Several have since been added to the public list being updated by RNZ, but some have not.
In January, a story about airstrikes in Syria opened with the line: “The Syrian army said an Israeli missile strike had briefly put the Damascus International Airport out of service, the latest in a string of strikes targeting Iran-linked assets.”
The version on RNZ removed the attribution to the Syrian Army and the reference to Iran-linked assets: “Deadly missile strikes have briefly put the Damascus International Airport out of service, the latest in a string of attacks by Israel.”
Other stories referring to Israelis or Palestinians involved subtle wording changes.
A Reuters story in February referred to “10 Palestinians including eight gunmen” killed by Israeli forces. When posted on RNZ, the words “including eight gunmen” had been removed.
Similar changes were made to at least two other Israel-Palestine stories published on RNZ in March.