Head of Radio New Zealand public radio network apologizes for "pro-Kremlin garbage"
CBSN
Wellington, New Zealand — The head of New Zealand's public radio station apologized Monday for publishing "pro-Kremlin garbage" on its website after more than a dozen wire stories on the Ukraine war were found to have been altered.
Most of the stories, which date back more than a year, were written by the Reuters news agency and were changed at Radio New Zealand to include Russian propaganda. A digital journalist from RNZ has been placed on leave pending the result of an employment investigation.
Paul Thompson, the chief executive of taxpayer-funded RNZ, said it had found issues in 16 stories and was republishing them on its website with corrections and editor's notes. He said he was commissioning an external review of the organization's editing processes.
