RNZ: New Zealand’s nationwide radio broadcaster ‘gutted’ for publishing ‘pro-Kremlin rubbish’ in news tales

Radio New Zealand, the nation’s public service radio station, has apologised for publishing “pro-Kremlin garbage” in a few of its on-line articles.

So far, 16 tales about Russia‘s invasion of Ukraine on its web site have been discovered to have been edited to current “a false account of events”.

RNZ, which is government-funded however has editorial independence, has now made corrections to the tales, indicating the modifying had modified the unique tales to current pro-Russian interpretations of some occasions in Ukraine as truth.

The station’s chief government Paul Thompson apologised to listeners, readers, employees and the Ukrainian neighborhood, and added: “It’s so disappointing that this pro-Kremlin garbage has ended up in our stories… It’s inexcusable.”

A digital journalist from RNZ has been positioned on go away pending the results of an employment investigation.

The tales, most of that are over a yr outdated, got here from the Reuters news company as wire copy, then have been edited and revealed on the station’s web site, which ranks among the many nation’s most-viewed news websites.

Typically one particular person at RNZ edited the copy because the tales had already been topic to sturdy modifying, based on Mr Thompson.

The taxpayer-funded radio station has reviewed about 250 tales with hundreds extra to be investigated, Mr Thompson stated.

The adjustments included the addition of pro-Kremlin narratives like “Russia annexed Crimea after a referendum”, and that “neo-Nazis had created a threat” to Russia’s borders – the latter vehemently dismissed by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who’s of Jewish heritage.

Meanwhile, Russia’s separation and occupation of the Crimean Peninsula in 2014 is internationally rejected, and the territory remains to be thought-about Ukrainian.

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On RNZ’s Nine to Noon present, Mr Thompson stated: “It is so disappointing. I’m gutted. It’s painful. It’s shocking. We have to get to the bottom of how it happened.”

Mr Thompson stated an exterior evaluation of the station’s modifying processes was underneath method and RNZ could be including one other layer of modifying to comparable tales.

A spokesperson for Reuters stated: “Reuters has addressed the issue with RNZ, which has initiated an investigation.”