The New Zealand Media Council has upheld a complaint from the Brewers Association of New Zealand against Radio New Zealand (RNZ), citing a breach of Principle (1) Accuracy, Fairness and Balance in its reporting on alcohol consumption guidelines.
The complaint centred on two RNZ articles published in July 2025, which reported that Canada had officially lowered its recommended alcohol intake to two drinks per week. The articles, part of a broader series on alcohol harm, relied on documents obtained under the Official Information Act and included commentary from health experts and advocacy groups.
Dylan Firth, Executive Director of the Brewers Association, argued that RNZ inaccurately presented the Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction’s (CCSA) recommendations as official government policy. In reality, Health Canada had not adopted the CCSA’s proposed limits, and the official guidelines remained unchanged. Despite being alerted to the error, RNZ initially amended the 14 July article only partially, leaving misleading information and graphics in place for two weeks.
You could possibly forgive Radio NZ for the initial mistake. But they took two weeks to correct their mistake, which was very significant. The entire thrust of their article was that NZ was lagging behind Canada as Canada had changed their guidelines. And the reality is that Canada has not at all changed their guidelines.
David Farrar runs Curia Market Research, a specialist opinion polling and research agency, and the popular Kiwiblog where this article was sourced. He previously worked in the Parliament for eight years, serving two National Party Prime Ministers and three Opposition Leaders
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