The Hobson's Pledge ad on the front page of the New Zealand Herald has caused huge fallout for misleading statements, but how much is a blurring of the facts and how much is true?
The New Zealand Herald's recent front-page advertisement from Hobson's Pledge. Photo: RNZ
The New Zealand Herald and its publisher NZME hit a nerve the week before last, publishing an advertisement from Hobson's Pledge that critics have called 'misleading', factually incorrect, and racist.
The full front-page wrap urged readers to sign a petition to 'Restore the Foreshore and Seabed to Public Ownership'.
It prompted a call out from the Māori Journalists' Association, Kawea Te Rongo, a boycott from Te Pāti Māori, Iwi Radio severing its ties and an open letter signed by 170 lawyers refuting the ad's claims.
Plans for a second ad were scrapped by NZME, which promised a review into its advertising policies - sparking more fury from Hobson's Pledge spokesman Don Brash, and the Free Speech Union.
But was the outcry against the ad justified?
Today The Detail speaks to a former editor-in-chief of the Herald, and Tumuaki Wāhine - vice-president - of the Māori Law Society to find out.
At the centre of the debate is a claim that there are applications from iwi, hapū and whānau for customary marine titles of nearly all the New Zealand coast under MACA - the Marine and Coastal Area Act.
That part is true.
But what's not true is that these would limit public access to the beaches.
Natalie Coates is the Tumuaki Wāhine for Te Hunga Rōia Māori o Aotearoa - the Māori Law Society - and one of 170 lawyers who penned an open letter laying out why the ad was wrong and racist.
"I think it's helpful to go through line by line, but also overall it's important to make sure you look at the ad in its whole and how it creates an impression," she says.
The front paged was titled 'restore the foreshore and seabed to public ownership'. Public ownership was highlighted in red.
This is the first falsehood, because as Coates explains, the majority of the foreshore and seabed hasn't historically been publicly owned.
"It's not owned by anybody currently, except for the areas of foreshore that are currently in mainly non-Māori private ownership actually … so, the idea of restoration is false," she explains.
Coates adds that the impression given by lines like 'restore public ownership' and 'iwi are going to get title' is that Māori will come to own this area, and that simplistic message misses the nuances of the true meaning.
"When people think of ownership and title, you think of a particular type of inability to go to a place, you think of the ability to exclude people, and I think the impression that this creates is an incorrect one because Māori under this framework, their rights are funnelled into very specific rights and in fact what the (foreshore and seabed) legislation did was extinguish those rights," she says.
Coates says examining the "layered-ness" of the way the ad presents itself is the thing to focus on.
Former editor-in-chief of the Herald, Tim Murphy, told The Detail this sort of advertising lends itself to controversy.
"People give [the Herald] extra credibility and its front page has a particular standing. I've written a piece in which I suggest that the front page of the Herald putting something like this on, would be like TVNZ turning over Simon Dallow at the beginning of its bulletin to read out a political message, or to read out an advocacy advertisement like this. That's the kind of thing we wouldn't do there and no one would expect," he says.
According to Murphy the Herald's advertising section and newsroom are quite distinct.
"So you have the people who are on the business or commercial side who will sell and bring in the revenue. Their interests are getting advertisers' messages into the most prominent spots in the paper. The editorial team looks after the news and journalism, so the editor runs them," he explains.
Murphy says classically the front page was dedicated to stories and journalism, but over the years small advertising has been allowed, and this has really ramped up in the last 15 years, something he says has been driven by the advertising department.
"But for that to have been approved then and even now, the people who run the actual business, the chief executive and the head of publishing, who sit above both advertising and editorial are the people who would make the big decisions."
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