12,000 New Zealanders tell Goldsmith to put the Broadcasting Standards Authority back in its box

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12,000 New Zealanders tell Goldsmith to put the Broadcasting Standards Authority back in its box

Late on Friday afternoon, the Broadcasting Standards Authority bundled three complaints against The Platform and demanded recordings of three broadcasts. None went out over the airwaves. Every one was on the internet.

Around 12,000 New Zealanders have now written to the Broadcasting Minister through the Free Speech Union's campaign asking him to put the Authority back in its box. The number keeps growing.

"An unelected panel of four people in Wellington is working through a stack of complaints against an independent online publisher it has no statutory authority to regulate," said Jillaine Heather, CEO of the Free Speech Union. "Parliament never gave the Authority the power to hear them."

Every podcast. Every livestream.

The real consequence is not The Platform case alone - it is the precedent. Commentator Liam Hehir spelled out how far the reading reaches: any smartphone or laptop now falls within the definition, meaning any public Zoom webinar or Twitch stream could be treated as a broadcast. The Spinoff's Duncan Greive, no friend of Sean Plunket, called the decision "logically inconsistent" for exempting YouTube and Netflix while reaching for one small independent publisher. Winston Peters, David Seymour and ACT's Laura McClure have all weighed in.

"This kind of mission creep always starts with someone controversial," said Heather. "Today it is Sean Plunket. Tomorrow it is a podcaster with 400 listeners, or a community group on Zoom."

The Minister needs to act 

The Authority has no code for online content, no consultation, and no guidance. It will judge an online publisher against standards it has not defined, using powers Parliament never granted. The Broadcasting Minister has already signalled the Authority will "probably" be scrapped. Probably is not good enough.

The Free Speech Union is calling on Minister Goldsmith to:

Publicly confirm the Broadcasting Act does not extend to online content

Direct the Authority to pause all complaints against online publishers pending legislative clarification

Bring forward the Government's response on the future of the Authority

"If New Zealanders want online speech regulated, that is a conversation for Parliament, in public, with the Bill of Rights Act at its centre," said Heather. "Not a regulator that spent twenty years asking for this power, then claimed it through a single jurisdictional ruling."

ENDS

Notes to editor:

On Friday 17 April 2026 the Broadcasting Standards Authority formally notified The Platform of three complaints from the same complainant, relating to broadcasts on 22 July, 15 October and 20 October 2025.

The Authority's jurisdiction decision (ID2025-063) was published on 1 April 2026 and is the first time the Authority has claimed jurisdiction over an independent online publisher.

The Free Speech Union's petition to the Broadcasting Minister has been running since August 2025. Total signatures to date exceed 11,800.

FSU Media Contact: Jillaine Heather | [email protected]