Government scraps BSA: the right call, but regulator and department overreach is the wider problem

Government scraps BSA: the right call, but regulator and department overreach is the wider problem 

The Free Speech Union welcomes the Government's decision to disestablish the Broadcasting Standards Authority and investigate voluntary self-regulation options, says Jillaine Heather, Chief Executive. 

“This is the right call. For more than 20 years, Parliament declined to extend the BSA's jurisdiction over the internet. The BSA tried to take that power for itself anyway. A regulator cannot help itself to powers Parliament has refused to give.” 

“Credit to every New Zealander who refused to accept backdoor censorship. Over 12,000 Kiwis signed our petition asking the Minister to put the BSA back in its box. They were right, and the Minister has now agreed.” 

Live cases must be dropped now 

“The BSA is currently prosecuting three complaints against The Platform under a jurisdictional theory the Government has just repudiated. The Authority cannot continue to exercise a power Parliament is about to remove. Those cases must be dropped immediately. The process is already the punishment.” 

The wider pattern of overreach 

The BSA is one symptom of a broader problem. Regulators unilaterally expanding their remit or government departments quietly building the machinery of speech regulation in advance of, or in place of, the public debate that should precede it. The Department of Internal Affairs is the clearest example, pressing on with structures and proposals on online content and “safer online services” while the open conversation about whether and how New Zealanders want online speech regulated has not yet happened in Parliament with public input. 

“In a democracy, the rules that govern speech are decided by the people we elect, after public consultation, in legislation. They are not decided by a regulator's creative interpretation of a 1989 Act, and they are not decided by a department building the apparatus first and inviting the debate later.” 

The Free Speech Union is calling on the Government to: 

Direct the BSA to discontinue all live online complaints, including the three current complaints against The Platform 

Pause Department of Internal Affairs work on online content regulation until Parliament has held open public consultation on whether and how online speech should be regulated 

“For two decades, free speech in New Zealand has been quietly eroded by regulators and departments expanding their own mandates. Today's BSA decision is the first significant reversal of that trend. We will keep holding the Government to account on the rest.” 

ENDS 

Notes to editor: 

The Free Speech Union's petition to the Minister for Media and Communications, “Put the BSA Back in its Place”, has been signed by more than 12,000 New Zealanders since launching in August 2025. 

On 31 March 2026, the BSA issued an interlocutory jurisdiction decision (ID2025-063) claiming, for the first time, the power to regulate an independent online publisher under the Broadcasting Act 1989. The decision was widely criticised by legal commentators including David Harvey, Liam Hehir and David Farrar, by The Spinoff's Duncan Greive, and by senior coalition figures including Winston Peters and David Seymour. 

On 17 April 2026, the BSA formally notified The Platform of three complaints (references 2025-063A, 063B, 063C) under that disputed jurisdiction. Those complaints remain active. 

The Law Commission's 2013 report The News Media Meets ‘New Media’ (Report 128) identified online-only media as a “regulatory gap” outside the BSA's remit. Successive Parliaments have declined to fill that gap. 

FSU Media Contact: Jillaine Heather | [email protected] |