Peter Williams: The BSA's digging its own grave

Two decisions highlight the need for its rapid disestablishment

If more evidence was needed about the relevance or irrelevance of the Broadcasting Standards Authority (BSA) then a couple of judgements they made this week have rammed home the point.

The decision about Sean Plunket on The Platform has been widely reported and commented on.

My take is simple.

David Farrar: No the BSA will not be missed

Newsroom reports:

Media lawyer Steven Price questions how the Media Council could be placed to pick up the slack, on top of its existing workload.

“They have just got a bunch of volunteers who meet and sit, I don’t know, four times a year. That’s it. They take turns drafting the decisions. They have a staff of one, or one part-time person. How’re they going to handle it? They also have no expertise in broadcasting.”

This is actually an argument in favour. Just look at the stats.

David Harvey: The Demise of the Broadcasting Standards Authority?

An announcement. But will there be action?

On 6 May 2026 the Minister for Broadcasting, Mr. Paul Goldsmith, announced that the Broadcasting Standards Authority would be disestablished.

A process had been put in place to wind down the BSA and investigate self-regulation options. There is, of course, a little more to it than that. The BSA was created by the Broadcasting Act 1989 and it is referred to in a number of statutes. There will be legislative work involved as well.

Penn Raine: Wait for it!

Wait for the howls of ‘Populism!’ when Britain’s red wall of Labour run councils crumbles as Farage’s Reform party marches over the ramparts, giggling as it goes.

No doubt there are similar wails, but of ‘Misogyny!’ and perhaps even ‘Racism!’ sounding around Wellington’s beltway and its bureaucracy’s dim corridors at Maiki Sherman’s announcement that she was stepping down because her position was ‘untenable’.

Richard Prebble: Broadcasters should be careful what they wish for

I have a confession to make.

The Broadcasting Standards Authority was my idea.

What is worse, I still think the original idea was right.

To my surprise, after the 1987 election, David Lange made me Minister of Broadcasting. Much of today’s broadcasting system came out of my reforms.

Peter Williams: RIP BSA

The abolition of the Broadcasting Standards Authority was inevitable. Dithery Communications Minister Paul Goldsmith finally made a decision, or more likely his cabinet colleagues and some Act MPs gave him a boot in the behind and told him to get on with it.

But exactly when this relic of the analogue age, brought into existence before TV3 was even on air, will actually be disestablished is unclear.

Mike's Minute: Good riddance to the BSA

I do worry about Paul Goldsmith's ability to make a decision.

The BSA and its abolition is a “done by morning tea, let's move onto the important stuff” sort of thing.

And yet he seems to have been waxing and waning and pontificating for the past two years of Government.

Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: The BSA sealed its own fate

Well, blow me down - I did not think that Paul Goldsmith had the courage or the inclination to do something as bold as actually scrapping the Broadcasting Standards Authority.

I thought it was all talk when he kept dropping it as a possibility but it turns out I was wrong. He’s announced the BSA is gone; the laws will be drawn up in the next few months and they’ll be passed before the next election.

DTNZ: Govt moves to scrap Broadcasting Standards Authority

The Government is moving to disestablish the Broadcasting Standards Authority, arguing the country’s media laws have failed to keep pace with the rise of online platforms, podcasts and on-demand content.

Media and Communications Minister Paul Goldsmith said Cabinet had agreed to progress work on shutting down the regulator and exploring industry-led self-regulation instead.

David Farrar: Do it Goldie!

Stuff reports:

The Government is weighing changes to the Broadcasting Standards Authority, with Media and Communications Minister Paul Goldsmith signalling disestablishment is currently his preferred option.

Goldsmith says no final decision has been made, but confirmed the Government is considering whether to retain the authority, redefine its role, or scrap it entirely, NZ Herald reported. …

David Farrar: The BSA costs ten times more than the Media Council, per complaint

I saw a story about how the BSA only had 90 complaints in the last year, so less than two a week.

That got me interested in how this compares to the NZ Media Council who consider company’s about non-broadcasters. The data is stunning.

John McLean: BSA BS continues unabated

What’s the best response to the Broadcasting Standards Authority’s unrelenting lawless lunacy?

The Broadcasting Standards Authority is now formally considering additional complaints against The Platform’s founder and CEO, Sean Plunket. Complainant Richard Faneslow’s original complaint is that Plunket’s “mumbo jumbo” epithet to describe Māori tikanga (mystical Māori rules for how Māori should go about daily life) was RACIST. Fanselow’s additional complaints allege that Plunket uses hurty words.

David Harvey, A Framework For Media Regulation In The Digital Age

A standalone proposal for the reform of media and communications regulation in New Zealand

Preliminary Note
This article contains a standalone proposal for the reform of media and communications regulation in New Zealand. It sets out both the theoretical and analytical foundations for reform and a concrete institutional model for a unified regulator.

Simon O'Connor: BSA - Ideologically compromised?

The Broadcasting Standards Authority (BSA) decision to include online broadcasting under its jurisdiction is an overreach, ideological, but also part of a global push to control speech.

So the Broadcasting Standards Authority (BSA) has just granted itself more powers, notably to empower the complaining class an opportunity to harass those online sharing their views.

David Farrar: Abolish the BSA

The Broadcasting Standards Authority announced:

The Broadcasting Standards Authority has confirmed it has jurisdiction to consider a complaint about content transmitted by an online broadcaster.

In a decision published today, the Authority determined it can accept, and is required to consider under the Broadcasting Act, complaints about The Platform’s Live Talkback programme, because the programme meets the Act’s definition of ‘broadcasting’.

John McLean: Bullsh*t State Sponsored Arrogance

The Broadcasting Standards Authority’s war on media channel The Platform is heating up and could well explode in 2026. I’ve covered the BSA’s ideologically driven attempt to assert jurisdiction over The Platform in a previous Substack:

David Farrar: BSA did not talk to Crown Law

I sent in an OIA to Crown Law on the 16th of October asking:

any communication between Crown Law and the Broadcasting Standards Authority around whether a person who publishes audio and video over the Internet can be regarded as a broadcaster under the Broadcastings Act 1989.

If there is such advice, and it is legally privileged, I would still like to know whether such advice was sought and given, even if the actual advice can’t be provided.

Crown Law has responded:

Matua Kahurangi: It's time To abolish the Broadcasting Standards Authority....

ACT’s Laura McClure is right: It's time To abolish the Broadcasting Standards Authority

ACT MP Laura McClure has sparked a necessary debate with her member’s bill to abolish the Broadcasting Standards Authority, calling time on what she describes as an outdated and unnecessary institution. After years of creeping overreach, ballooning levies, and increasingly irrelevant regulation, her proposal lands at exactly the right moment.

Matua Kahurangi: Free speech under fire

Former judge David Harvey forecasts fresh online regulation push

Broadcaster Alastair Harding was joined by former Judge David Harvey (
A Halfling’s View ), broadcasting legend Peter Allan Williams and RCR’s co-founder Claire Deeks to unpack the Broadcasting Standards Authority’s (BSA) latest push to extend its powers into the world of online radio. What unfolded was a stark warning about where free speech and online regulation in New Zealand could be heading.

Samira Taghavi: Staying within the lines: over-reach from the Broadcasting Standards Authority and how it can be fixed

When a statutory regulator begins to stretch its mandate beyond what Parliament intended, it is not a minor procedural concern – it is a constitutional matter.

The Broadcasting Standards Authority (BSA) has recently asserted that its jurisdiction may extend to “internet radio” and other forms of internet-delivered audio content. At first glance, this might appear to be an administrative or technological question. It is not. It is about the limits of state power, the certainty of the law and the preservation of freedom of expression in a democratic society.