New Zealand Media & Communications Minister Paul Goldsmith has announced the Government will scrap the Broadcasting Standards Authority and allow self-regulation with the Media Council. He said that the BSA was designed for a broadcasting environment that was “rapidly disappearing”.

The decision appears to have been driven by an instance where the BSA stepped in after receiving a complaint about an internet radio outlet The Platform. The BSA said the program met the act’s definition of ‘broadcasting’, NZ First Leader Winston Peters however felt it was censorship and regulatory overreach.

Minister Goldsmith told the RNZ Midday Report:

“The suggestion is that the Media Council would become a sort of a self-regulatory body for journalism and holding standards, and so people can go through that process.

Alternatively, they can just turn it off and listen to somebody else. And then any entity, if they find that they’re offending everybody and nobody listens to them, will soon be out of business.”

He additional said that they would reevaluate the self-regulation model over time to reassure that it is working, but that the scrapping of an outdated model meant it was ‘worth having a go in this area.’

NZ is heading to a General Election in November with a bill to action the change unlikely to be ready before then.