Hipkins says 'anti media' Government scrapping BSA without a plan to replace it
Wednesday, 6 May 2026
The Broadcasting Standards Authority (BSA) will be disestablished by the Government, with the Media Council expected to take over regulation.
The BSA is a statutory organisation that regulates standards in broadcasting ‒ covering both accuracy and decency. It can issue fines and demand corrections over news stories that are deemed inaccurate or unfair, as well as regulate for decency.
“The BSA regime was designed for a broadcasting environment that is rapidly disappearing,” Media Minister Paul Goldsmith said in a statement on Wednesday.
“Today, audiences move seamlessly between traditional broadcasting, on‑demand services, podcasts and online platforms ‒ yet only a small portion of that content is subject to the BSA’s regulatory oversight. It doesn’t make sense.”
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The move comes months after the BSA decided it had the jurisdiction to rule on a complaint made about online radio show The Platform, run by Sean Plunket.
Goldsmith said the current framework could create inconsistencies and unfair outcomes for media providers, with “similar content treated differently depending on whether it is broadcast live or accessed on demand”.
He said he expected the Media Council, a non-statutory voluntary body that regulates print and web media including The Post, would take over regulation.
“Print media already self regulates through the New Zealand Media Council, and some broadcasters have opted to be part of it. Our expectation is the Media Council will become the primary regulator for journalism,” Goldsmith said.
“I’m confident that greater industry self-regulation is the most practical way to level the playing field across platforms, and can provide an appropriate level of oversight to maintain ethical journalistic standards and audience trust.”
Labour: Govt ‘anti-media’, doesn’t have a clear replacement
Labour leader Chris Hipkins said some level of reform to the BSA might make sense but the Government was scrapping “consumer protection” without any kind of model of what would replace it.
“The world's changed dramatically since when the BSA was first introduced. But just scrapping it and saying: ‘Look, we’re just going to leave this up to self-regulation’ is not the answer.”
Any law to scrap the BSA would likely not be passed before the election, but Hipkins was not ready to say for sure that he would cancel the reform.
“We haven't even seen what the proposal is or how far they think they're going to get with it before the election,” Hipkins said.
He said the Government had an “anti-media narrative” that was behind the move.
ACT Party MP Laura McClure, who lodged a members’ bill to abolish the BSA, issued a statement calling the decision a “victory for free speech”.
“Last year, radical bureaucrats at the BSA actively expanded their empire to police the internet,' says McClure.
“Kiwis no longer rely on a handful of TV channels. They choose what they watch and listen to from a vast range of platforms. If you don’t like something, you switch it off. We don’t need a taxpayer-funded taste police in Wellington deciding what people are allowed to hear.”