On Monday, Radio New Zealand became the latest broadcaster to threaten to leave Twitter after the social media network labeled it as “government-funded.”
The chief of content at RNZ said the network might follow in the footsteps of its US counterparts National Public Radio and Public Broadcasting Service, who both left Twitter last week in protest at the tag.
“Not only is our editorial independence protected by the law, we guard it vigorously,” head of content Megan Whelan wrote on Twitter.
Public broadcasters have been infuriated by the forced tag, which they believe puts them on par with outlets that are controlled by authoritarian governments.
“Twitter’s own policy defines ‘government-funded media’ as cases where the government ‘may have varying degrees of government involvement over editorial content’ – which does not apply to RNZ,” Whelan said.
She went on to say that RNZ was reviewing its options, which included “talking to Twitter to have the label removed or revised, or leaving the platform, as other public media around the world have done.”
Last Wednesday, NPR became the first broadcaster to leave Twitter after it was momentarily labeled “state-affiliated media,” claiming that the platform was “undermining our credibility by falsely implying that we are not editorially independent.”
Elon Musk, the owner of Twitter, later stated that the “state-affiliated” tag was a mistake, but despite being renamed “government-funded,” NPR has not posted since April 12.
