July 23, 2019
Māori Television apologises for Durie slur
Māori Television has admitted a story it ran in 2015 about New Zealand Māori Council chair Sir Edward Durie and his wife Donna Hall was false, and it has apologised to the couple.
A defamation case was due to go back before the High court yesterday, but the parties reached a confidential settlement with included publishing a retraction and an apology.
Māori Television says in its story about conflict within the council it reported a document it described as being minutes of a Māori Council meeting containing allegations against the pair, including that the council had dismissed Ms Hall as its lawyer.
It now accepts the minutes did not represent the view of the Council or its Executive, and it failed to confirm if any of the allegations in those alleged minutes were true.
Ms Hall says Māori Television did not contact Sir Edward for comment before publishing the story, and it refused to wait for her to provide documents proving the allegations were false.
The allegations were made by a faction led by John Tamihere after a majority of the New Zealand Māori Council refused to recognise the result of what it considered were unlawful elections for the Auckland District Māori Council, a decision that was later upheld by the High Court.
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