Complaint over Campbell Live insurance story

  • 21/07/2015
(Getty)
(Getty)

Months after its cancellation, current affairs show Campbell Live has been pinged by the broadcasting watchdog for a year-old episode.

The Broadcasting Standards Authority on Tuesday upheld a complaint by the Insurance Council of New Zealand that an episode about the Christchurch earthquake recovery was not balanced and accurate.

In the 2014 episode, which aired on the fourth anniversary of the first Christchurch earthquake, the show featured a school hall full of complainants who had unresolved insurance claims.

The authority found the show failed to give the insurance industry a chance to respond to complaints made in the episode and misled in claiming insurers "were not willing to front".

"The programme would not have enabled viewers to arrive at an informed and reasoned opinion about the progress of the Canterbury recovery because it did not adequately present an alternative viewpoint to balance the story's overall message that the insurance industry was `substandard, lamentable and generally failing the people of Canterbury'," it said.

"ICNZ had clearly made repeated offers to engage with the programme and to partake in a live interview."

But it noted the "item was of importance not only to the homeowners in question but to New Zealanders generally".

Mediaworks has been ordered to broadcast a statement summarising the BSA's decision.

Campbell Live was controversially cancelled in May, prompting public campaigns to keep the long-running show on the air.

NZN