Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa
16 June 2025
Complaints Committee
Television New Zealand
complaints.committee@tvnz.co.nz
Kia ora koutou,
Formal complaint re 1News Items broadcast 6pm on 25 May, 30 May, 1 June, 2 June, 4 June, 5 - 9 June
This is a formal complaint against an item on the 6pm News Bulletin on 25 May, another on 30 May, and items broadcast on 1, 2,4,5,6,7 and 9 June, all under the terms of the Broadcasting Code of Practice for 5 Balance and 6 Accuracy.
Sunday 25 May
The 25 May item concerned an Israeli attack on Khan Yunis in Gaza which killed most of the al-Najar family.
The item was introduced with the studio statement “The Israeli military says it is investigating reports that an airstrike killed nine children from the same family in southern Gaza.”
This is a most extraordinary and confusing way to introduce such a story. It may firstly, be intended by 1News to convey Israeli government suspicion, or propaganda, that the bombing itself did not happen or that the deaths did not happen. This interpretation is indicated by the use of the word “reports”.
Or, secondly, it may by intended by 1News that the Israeli government was indirectly responsible for deaths which did occur, and that the Israeli government is somehow an impartial and responsible authority which would investigate to find out who actually caused the deaths and take some form of corrective or disciplinary action as a result.
Another third option could be that 1News wished to convey the impression that the attack which killed the children was not an Israeli airstrike but originated from somewhere else.
This is made more uncertain, due to 1News’ pro-Israel house style. 1News’ reports on Palestinian deaths are usually written passively to avoid pointing to Israel as the responsible party.
For example, in this item we heard the expression “Gaza is buckling under the strain of war” rather than buckling under Israeli attacks. The Al-Najar parents stayed in Khan Younis, we are told, not despite Israeli bombing, but rather “despite the war”. Similarly, it was “the war” which had “wiped out thousands of families” rather than Israel which is responsible.
The item also refers to calls to “end the fighting”, though in this rare instance it does provide balance with a reference to calls “for Israel to stop its offensive”.
Indeed, the only other verb attributed to Israel in the item was that it has “let in” aid trucks.
Whichever way we might interpret the item’s introduction, it was clear that wording used by 1News created an impression of Israel somehow being above the fray and thus served to obfuscate and so lessen Israeli government responsibility for the deaths, to an extent which would mislead many viewers.
That story that the killings of the Al-Najar children occurred and Israel killed them was carried as a factual occurrence by many news agencies – BBC, Aljazeera, Sky News, ABC - without qualifications except to the number of children in the family.
The 1News story also continued on later in the item to report the deaths as factual, this making it more likely that 1News intended to mean the second or third meaning option.
The only report we could find to qualify the reports in the manner of 1News was that of the Jerusalem Post;
“The claims about harm to uninvolved [civilians] are being looked into,” it stated.
Thus the main point in this Jerusalem Post report appears to be that the IDF made out that it was surprised there were any “civilians” left in Khan Yunis for Israeli to kill.
This is a source 1News may have used for its introduction, indirectly or directly, if the studio back-announce to the item is an indication (with a reference to “suspects” to give the Israeli genocide the appearance of a mere police operation).
But whatever interpretation of the wording 1News used, the result was that unwarranted doubt was cast on the facts, and a misleading impression created for the viewer of Israeli innocence, neutrality, restraint, or objectivity.
Moreover, the objective track record of Israeli investigations into its own actions is underwhelming, against the weight put on their significance by 1News whenever Israel announces that it is conducting an investigation.
Promised investigations invariably are not completed or are a whitewash. The killing of journalist Shreen Abu Akleh on the Occupied West Bank in May 2022, the Flour Massacre in February 2024, the IDF attack on the World Foot Kitchen in April 2024, and the PRCS ambulance massacre this March, are but four of the most prominent examples of changing Israeli stories and coverups.
Israeli promises to conduct an inquiry are issued as some sort of public relations device until the heat dies down, by which time the news media has lost interest. 1News should not be a cooperative party to this manipulation of the public.
Friday 30 May
The 30 May item was about the Israeli government’s announcement of 22 settlements to be built in the Occupied West Bank.
The reporter stated the settlements were “widely seen as illegal under international law”. This is a favoured BBC term. The BBC is well documented, by journalists such as Owen Jones, Rifat Jawaid and Lowkey, as these days a notoriously pro-Israel infiltrated news agency.
The 1News’ description is quite wrong. The settlements are unambiguously illegal. The International Court of Justice found the settlements were illegal in July of 2004.
The UN Security Council described the settlements as having “no legal foundation” and a “flagrant violation of international law” in December of 2016, with New Zealand being a cosponsor of the resolution.
We are not stating that no parties have a contrary opinion – of course Israel does. But to give weight to these views in the news item is tantamount to a story from outside a court stating someone just convicted of a crime can properly be described as only “widely seen” as being guilty simply because the convicted person still claimed they were not guilty.
This matter of illegality is a legal definitional issue and the legal position is clear and 1News should not continue to pretend that any ambiguity remains anymore than it would give plausibility to claims that the earth was round.
Sunday 1 June
This item was about talks with Hamas breaking down. 1News described Hamas as rejecting an “original plan” presented by the US. 1News failed to report that this was not the original plan at all. Journalist Jeremy Scahill, has revealed that the real original US plan had been earlier accepted by Hamas, but rejected by Israel.
1News used the expression “Hamas led health authority” (as it routinely does in the other bulletins throughout the subsequent week). In contrast, 1News does not refer to Israeli government departments, by using the editorial preface of the political affiliation of the Israeli government, as being “Likud run..” We make an objection to this discrimination.
Monday 2 June
This broadcast on 2 June, concerned at least 30 Palestinians who were killed at an Israeli run “aid station” at Rafeh on the previous day – Sunday 1 June.
The circumstances and nature of our complaint are similar to the item broadcast by 1News on 9 November 2024, where the broadcast report invented antisemitic motives for attacks on Israeli football fans, which turned out be attacks on people by those fans. Our complaint was upheld by both TVNZ and the BSA.
The item, in what might most charitably be described at 1News trying to achieve balance, failed miserably on the basis of accuracy.
The report began by stating a question on “who opened fire on Gazans (sic) about a kilometre away from an aid distribution centre (near Rafah).
The presenter said “The Hamas run civil defence agency said there were 31 fatalities and blamed the incident on Israeli gunfire. Israel’s military says it didn’t shoot anyone in the area. The group that runs the centre says aid was handed out without incident.”
The item then went into a report from the BBC’s Lucy Williamson – one of small group trusted by the IDF to be an embedded reporter with the IDF.
A Palestinian was translated “Let the whole world see what the Israelis and Americans are doing to us.”
Williamson then cited another witness who said unidentified “tanks had fired warning shots before dawn as the crowd grew unmanageable. Then as the chaos grew” similarly unidentified “troops fired into the crowd itself”.
She then said “Israeli backed group behind the sites..said the claims of casualties were false and fabricated. An Israeli soldier in Rafah told us only warning shots had been fired. Israel’s army denied it fired at civilians near or within the distribution site, and shared this drone footage from a different location which it says shows armed individuals firing at Gazans (sic) as they grabbed looted humanitarian aid.”
The item then moved to a statement from an IDF spokesperson who accused Hamas of “spreading rumours, fake news” and “violently to stop the people of Gaza from reaching those distribution centres”.
He then promised an investigation would be carried out into all of the “incidents” and “allegations”.
Williamson went on to state later in the item “Israel’s critics say it’s using hunger as a weapon of war.”
Responding to that last quote first, the implied meaning by 1News is that there is some doubt as to whether hunger is being used by Israel as a such a weapon.
There is no such doubt for 1News to give Israel the benefit of. The Israeli government and its ministers declared cutting off supplies was an Israeli strategy at the outset of the assault on Gaza – such as statements made by the then Defence Minister Yoav Gallant;
Such confessions have been made frequently since, albeit often in just the Israeli Hebrew press, declaring that Israel is using hunger as a war weapon.
As for the rest of the item, it was a classic case of reporting accusations from both sides, with no consideration that there is a huge amount of evidence from diverse sources that the Israeli side was telling lies.
In this item on this date, it was unclear who the armed individuals were meant to be – presumably Hamas, but they may have also been Israeli backed criminal gangs who have formed in Gaza (see Haaretz story below).
Once again, there is a systematic issuing of false stories and denials by the Israeli government, which 1News feels obligated to report.
The New Zealand Herald laid the blame on Israel. The headline was “27 killed as Israeli army opens fire near Gaza aid point”.
27 killed as Israeli army opens fire near Gaza aid point - NZ Herald
A similar report was published by the New India Express Israel attacks starving Palestinians at aid site in Rafah, kills 27, including 3 children; strikes across Gaza kill 8
The Washington Post likewise reported the deaths were caused by Israeli shooting, with the headline “More than 30 killed by Israeli gunfire trying to reach aid site” as published in New Zealand.
The story quoted a number of witnesses to the attack, though the story also quoted the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation as implausibly denying there was any shooting at all. The headline was unequivocal, and based on well-founded journalistic principles of having several witness sources.
The Washington Post later retracted the story, stating it did not meet it journalistic standards, since it relied on Hamas as its only source.
Washington Post admits erroneous reporting in accusing IDF of shooting 31 Gazans | World Israel News
A reading of the story shows this is not true. The World Israeli News’ description shows the two stories are incompatible. The Washington Post had actually originally quoted and relied on a number of sources.
The retraction was the story which demonstrably violated the Washington Post’s journalistic standards by falsely citing the nature of the original story.
It can only be concluded that the retraction was a political correction and not a journalistic one. It is not going too far to suggest that TVNZ News is following the same political imperatives.
The 1News item quoted the IDF spokesperson as Israel “will investigate”. This is another example of the Israeli PR process described above in the case of other instances where Israel had killed people.
The IDF spokesperson also stated in the item “Hamas bluntly and violently is stopping people from reaching these distribution centres”. 1News did not report any Hamas’ response to this charge.
Neither this item, nor any previous items on 1News, made a reference to the Israeli biometric monitoring of those Palestinians who arrived to collect food and how Palestinians were taken away to an unknown fate if the biomonitoring found them to be “suspects” – a literal baited trap in other words.
Nor has there been a report by 1News to show the significance of the “aid stations’” locations, as shown in the 4 June item, that Israel had only one such facility outside the Rafah district, none at all north of the Netzarim Corridor, in an attempt to let hunger force Palestinians to go south and so achieve ethnic cleansing of Gaza City.
Wednesday 4 June
This item was a follow up to the 2 June item, reporting on the third day of Palestinians being killed. The item included statements about being attacked from a range of sources, and following 1News style, expressed most of them in the passive voice to avoid mentioning claims against Israel;
“Gunfire from the tanks”
“Why are they killing us?”
“This footage appears to show Palestinians under fire”
“The UN has condemned the violence” quoting UN spokesperson Jeremy Laurence. In https://news.un.org/en/story/2025/06/1163966 it is true that Laurence has condemned the violence, and called for an investigation, but pointed all his evidence at the IDF, especially in the last segment of the interview. 1News did not broadcast this part of the interview.
The item quoted Israeli government spokesperson David Mencer. He neither admitted nor denied that the IDF had killed anyone, but did admit that Israeli forces fired on what he called “suspects” advancing on Israel troops.
The item replayed the IDF supplied footage which 1News ran on 2 June. This time 1News confirmed its implication of 2 June, that the IDF says it showed “Hamas’ gunmen”, while 1News also once more said the BBC has determined that the footage was from “a different location” and added “unrelated to events at the new distribution centre”.
1News has made no mention in its bulletins since, that Israeli backed criminal and ISIS gangs in the area are in the business of looting aid convoys.
1News has reported Israeli accusations of Hamas being responsible for both the killings and looting aid, and has twice broadcast the same IDF supplied video as evidence of these claims.
The implied Israeli logic of this is that if it can show that it is not the IDF carrying out shooting then the only other people carrying guns and shooting them are Hamas. The Haaratz story presents, at the very least, a third possibility which 1News has failed to show its New Zealand viewers.
Moreover, the Washington Post (6 June attached) and CNN (5 June below link) have stated there is no evidence that aid has been seized by Hamas.
https://edition.cnn.com/2025/06/04/middleeast/israel-military-gaza-aid-shooting-intl-invs
The CNN story is important. It is the result of multiple forensic analysis and “more than a dozen witnesses”. Though the headline is still couched in qualified accusatory terms (“point to Israeli gunfire”) CNN is far more direct than the defensive expressions employed by 1News. CNN has uncovered and reported Israeli culpability and lies.
1News reported a Gaza Humanitarian Foundation statement that aid had been “distributed without incident” in that 2 June item, and showed a GHF video to try to prove it. 1News made no reference then or later that there was other Sunday 1 GHF video, which CNN broadcast, showing tracer fire overhead, which directly rebuts the GHF “without incident” claim 1News has broadcast.
The item claimed Palestinians carrying a body were “cursing Hamas”. There was no evidence provided that this was true. The audible audio in Arabic does not back the claim. The only part which is decipherable is the standard prayer to Allah. It seems that 1News is much quicker to accept some claims as true if they reflect badly on Hamas, but not if claims reflect poorly on Israel.
The 4 June bulletin showed a map of the “aid stations” in Gaza. 1News made no attempt to inform its viewers of the significance of where these facilities were located – another reason why Hamas was identifying them as instruments of the Israeli genocide programme.
Israel had only one such facility outside the Rafah district, and none at all north of the Netzarim Corridor, in an attempt to let hunger force Palestinians to go south and so achieve ethnic cleansing of Gaza City and south to at least the Netzarim.
The BBC’s reporting at this time is also at variance with 1News equivocation. On 4 June it reported on the Tuesday killings as having been carried out by Israel, with witnesses including “international medical teams” (which 1News has not reported as witnesses) in this Jeremy Bowen report;
Killings near Gaza aid centre will deepen criticism of Israel's new distribution system
The story begins with “Witnesses and international medical teams report terrible scenes of killing as Israeli troops opened fire in the hours of Tuesday before dawn on Palestinians who were converging on the new aid distribution site in southern Gaza. It was "total carnage" according to a foreign witness.”
Thursday 5 to Monday 9 June
These items continued the denial of 1News to attribute responsibility for the “aid centre” killings of Palestinians to the Israeli armed forces, despite increasing evidence of Israeli culpability cited above.
On 5th June, 1News reported the US veto in the Security Council, and the recent killing by Israel of Palestinians near Gaza City, “according to the Hamas run Health Ministry” and “Israel insists its forces didn’t prevent Palestinians in Gaza from collecting aid.”
On 6th June, 1News reported the resumption of GHF activities. 1News stated, “Yesterday’s pause followed multiple deadly shooting near the aid hubs earlier this week.”
The 7th June item featured a visit by a BBC reporter to Delaware USA, the registered office of the GHF and an interview with a UN official.
1News stated in the item “…dozens of people were killed this week making their way to one of their (GHF) sites.” No attribution of responsibility again.
On 9th June, 1News reported “The Israeli military announced it’s now discovered the body of Hamas military leader Mohammed Sinwar… his body discovered in a tunnel in Gaza underneath the European Hospital in Khan Yunis.”
1News has reported this as a series of facts – presumably because the report originated from the Israeli military.
An Israeli military spokesperson then claimed Israeli hostages were being tortured and Hamas was using them as human shields.
There was no response from Hamas broadcast by 1News to provide balance. Hamas has denied its military centres have been located under hospitals, that it is using human shields and that it is torturing prisoners.
In predictable contrast to 1News certainty of where Sinwar’s body was found, 1News continued to fail to report Israeli responsibility for killing people at “aid centres”, with the reporter stating “Palestinian health officials claim four Palestinians have been shot by Israeli forces”, and reported the Israeli denial that it had fired anything other than warning shots.
Conclusion
The above items display a 1News pattern of reporting, which are the subjects of our complaint.
Invariable use of the expression “Hamas run…” to try to discredit any claim which follows it. 1News rarely, if ever, uses the expression “Likud Bloc run Israeli government..”
Almost invariably expresses casualties of Israeli attacks without mentioning the perpetrators of those attacks.
In the specific case of the attacks on the “aid centres” 1News failed, and continues to fail to accept, firm evidence, such as the CNN forensic report, that when Israeli denies responsibility for these attacks it is telling lies.
1News avoids the use of expressions “genocide’ and “ethnic cleansing” to describe Israeli actions.
In summary, 1News is routinely giving clearly unwarranted credence to the Israeli narrative of innocence in its genocide in Gaza. While it is true that 1News will show (sanitised) images of Palestinian victims of Israeli aggression, and of Palestinians’ anguish, the persistent scripting by 1News to avoid Israeli agency, to avoid background, history, and context, and to adhere to supporting Israeli government talking points, no matter how much the credibility and track record of these talking points depart from established facts.
In previous correspondence, TVNZ has referred to the needs for complaints of this nature to be about a “controversial nature” and of “public importance” to stand any chance of being upheld through the complaints process of the BSA.
We suggest this test is more than just a threshold. It is an escalating scale of responsibility, depending on how controversial the issues are and of how much public importance.
The Israeli attack on Gaza over the past 20 months must rank very high on both counts. 1News devotes a special caption to the issue. Unfortunately, the efforts which it has devoted to covering the Israeli onslaught, in the immediately complained of items above, and throughout the assault, fails to meet the minimum standards of the relevant Broadcasting Codes of Practice.
Nā,
John Minto
Co-Chair PSNA
Co-chair2@PSNA.nz