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MEDIA RELEASE A regulator with no rulebook has decided what online speech is acceptable Yesterday the Broadcasting Standards Authority upheld its first complaints against an online broadcaster. The broadcaster was The Platform, and the host was its founder, Sean Plunket, who has disputed the Authority's jurisdiction for a year. No orders were made. The Authority found that a talkback discussion of a Fire and Emergency New Zealand restructure proposal breached the good taste and decency obligation in the Broadcasting Act 1989. There is no code of standards for online content. The Authority has never written one. It accepted that there is no right not to be offended, and that the remark at the centre of the complaint would not on its own have breached any standard. It upheld the complaint on the tone of the broadcast as a whole, which it found denigrated Māori and was one sided, and on its view that the broadcast did not “advance the public's understanding of an important issue”. “A board appointed by the Government has weighed criticism of a government agency and found it wanting,” said Jillaine Heather, CEO of the Free Speech Union. “Public commentary does not have to prove its worth to a regulator. That is the whole point of protecting it.” The Authority declared its own limit justified The Authority says freedom of expression is its “starting point for every complaint”, and that it may uphold a complaint only where the harm makes a limit on that right “reasonable and justified”. On this broadcast it found itself “unable to identify any value” sufficient to outweigh the harm, and concluded that the result was “a lawful, reasonable and justified limit on the right to freedom of expression”. “Before the state limits what people may say, it has to show that the limit is justified,” said Heather. “The Authority declared its limit justified but never showed us the rights analysis.” Judged against a standard that does not apply to them There is no balance standard for online broadcasters, and no fairness standard either. The Authority said as much in this decision, then marked the broadcast down for being one sided. Publishers have no rule to follow and no way to know what the Authority wants. Read the full release here: https://t.co/Bj0zkPIrcE