Coverage of a misleading phone poll that TVNZ implied showed public opinion overwhelmingly against the Civil Union Bill is to be investigated by the state broadcaster, following a joint complaint under the Broadcasting Code filed by media watchdog group GayWatch and GayNZ.com. On December 2, in the lead-up to final vote in Parliament on the Civil Union Bill, TVNZ's flagship current affairs programme Close Up @ 7 ran an 0900 phone poll asking the question "Should gay relationships be legally recognised?". The overwhelming majority of callers paid 99 cents to say "no". Despite the complete lack of scientific veracity behind self-selected phone polls, host Susan Wood implied the poll was indicative of actual public opinion, and political commentator Lindsay Perigo ventured that the poll may affect MP's voting patterns on One News's late edition programme the same evening. The poll result created an echo chamber for other media, who following TVNZ's lead trumpeted the poll results as definitive, which media group GayWatch saw as setting disturbing precedents for future debates on gay issues. Programme standards manager David Edmunds has informed GayNZ.com in writing that the enquiry is to begin "shortly".
Credit: GayNZ.com News Staff
First published: Sunday, 20th November 2005 - 12:00pm