Mossack Fonseca man takes Nicky Hager to task
Media watchdog says Roger Thompson was treated unfairly.
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The local agent of the company at the centre of the Panama Papers scandal has been partly successful in complaining about an article by journalist Nicky Hager published on TVNZ’s website.
Roger Thompson complained to the Online Media Standards Authority that the article (Nicky Hager: How to sidestep NZ tax disclosure rules) contained factual inaccuracies because he was not asked to comment, and that it was unbalanced and unfair.
The authority has partly upheld the complaint.
It says the article should have been identified as an opinion piece, that it lacked a range of viewpoints, Mr Thompson had been treated unfairly, and he should have been contacted before the article was published.
The article alleged Mr Thompson “specifically advised” his clients to avoid countries that had “information-sharing agreements” and “double tax agreements” with New Zealand.
The authority says tax agreements being referred to as “information-sharing agreements” is accurate and not misleading but stating that Mr Thompson “specifically advised” his clients is misleading.
The media watchdog also says that although including “disclosure rules” in the headline isn’t ideal, it is a “reasonable representation” of the kinds of agreements referred to in the article.
Mr Thompson asked for a full retraction of the article. The authority says this isn’t required because TVNZ will publish its decision and the state-owned broadcaster has already made changes to the article.
In April, more than 11 million documents from Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca were leaked to German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung and the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, claiming to illustrate how wealthy individuals hide their assets.
TVNZ, RNZ and Nicky Hager collaborated on several articles.
Read the full decision here.
Campbell Gibson
Fri, 23 Sep 2016
Fri, 23 Sep 2016
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Mossack Fonseca man takes Nicky Hager to task
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