The BBC is facing accusations of bias, as well as a lawsuit, after a leaked memo suggests the Panorama programme edited one of Donald Trump’s speeches to imply he encouraged the Capitol Hill riots of January 2021. 

The US President is demanding a full retraction and is threatening to sue for nearly 1.8 billion New Zealand dollars in damages. 

The incident is doing nothing to raise trust in the media, or dispel concerns of media bias. 

NZME Editor-at-Large Shayne Currie told Kerre Woodham that a reporter’s job when covering the news is to report the facts accurately, fairly, and in a balanced view, and some of the criticism that’s been directed towards the media is that a lot of reporters have been allowed to inject their own opinion or analysis into those news reports.  

“I think we’re getting to a point now where you’ll see much more clearly differentiated, this is news, this is opinion, this is analysis.” 

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