Abolishing the BSA doesn’t help people speak truth to power - it removes a check on power
Or at least, acknowledges that its check on power was toothless anyway
Since 1989, broadcasting in Aotearoa New Zealand has been subject to the Broadcasting Standards Authority (BSA) who enforce the standards outlined in the Broadcasting Standards Act 1989. These standards covered radio and television, including pay TV (a difference from the United States where the equivalent body doesn’t have jurisdiction over cable). The first group of standards covered protecting children’s interest from content that may adversely affect them, offensive and disturbing content, promotion of illegal activity, discrimination and denigration. The second, which applied only to factual content such as news, covered balance and accuracy, while the third covered the right to privacy and fair treatment.
The first set of standards hardly acted as censorship. Plenty of movies containing nudity or horror scenes would air on New Zealand television, at times when children had typically gone to bed, with a clear rating and sometimes a warning beforehand. Broadcasts that dealt with topics like domestic violence, drug addiction, or suicide often were followed by a brief clip advertising a helpline. Few would see these warnings and ratings as an egregious imposition on their liberty. When an irreverent student radio station satirised the concept of broadcasting standards by including the phrase “fuck-knuckles, cock and piss. Balls” in their on-air announcement that complaints could be made if listeners thought standards had been breached, only one person did complain, and their complaint wasn’t upheld. The authority ruled that the station’s target audience was likely to appreciate the satire.
Even the standards for factual programming were somewhat relaxed. A complaint about a caller to a talkback radio show spreading false information on the airwaves would not be upheld (a complaint about a host might) and international channels carried by local TV providers that didn’t have editorial control were for all intents and purposes exempt- you couldn’t successfully complain Fox News had a lack of balance or accuracy in a segment just because it was broadcast by Sky. In recent years, the BSA only held up 7% of complaints.
