Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: TVNZ crossed a line with their handling of Maiki Sherman

From the commentary I’m seeing online, it’s clear there is a perception that no one reported on the Maiki Sherman revelation because the media were protecting one of their own.

I can tell you that perception is true. It’s not imagined - it is true.

It is not true for Newstalk ZB. And I’m not saying that because I’m employed by Newstalk ZB; I’m saying it because I was involved in some of the phone calls around this particular - shall we loosely call it - investigation. I know we tried to publish this but we ran into a couple of obstacles, which, frankly, happens with investigations. There’s no need to get too dramatic about it.

I can’t tell you the number of things I’ve wanted to report on, or tried to report on, that I’ve never been able to. There’s a long list.

I also don’t think the press gallery members who were at the party in Nicola Willis’ office last May can necessarily be judged for not reporting on what happened.

As I said yesterday on the show, I worked in the press gallery too. I know there’s a lot of boozing in the press gallery - I did it myself - and sometimes there’s bad behaviour because that’s what happens with booze.

It doesn’t always get reported. Do you narc on all your mates every time you’re out drinking and they do something stupid? No, you don’t.

What was not okay, however, was that when it became known in Wellington that Newstalk ZB was trying to run a story, members of the press gallery got in touch to raise concerns.

My recollection is that they were worried that if we went public with what Maiki Sherman said to Lloyd Burr, we would be breaking a long-held convention of not reporting on what happens during “drinky poos” in Parliament.

They feared ministers would then panic about breaches of Chatham House rules and stop inviting the press gallery into their offices for drinks.

That crossed the line, in my opinion. That was actively trying to stop media outside Wellington from reporting on what happened in Wellington, involving one of their own.

In the end, it didn’t influence us at all. And I’m not telling you this because it does me any favours - it doesn’t. I expect I’ll be ostracised the next time I see some of my friends in the press gallery for saying this.

But I think it’s worth saying because it’s a reminder to all of us in the media that our job is to report the facts, not to suppress them - even when it involves our mates.

Heather du Plessis-Allan is a journalist and commentator who hosts Newstalk ZB's Drive show.