PM office's ONE News complaint dismissed by BSA

A complaint from the Prime Minister's office over a ONE items on the upgrade of the Government's BMW fleet has been dismissed.Prime Minister John Key's chief press secretary Kevin Taylor complained to the Broadcasting Standards Authority that the ONE item, broadcast in May, breached accuracy standards.Taylor said the item implied there was a link between a donation from a BMW dealership to the National Party and the car deal.He said it gave the impression of a "dodgy deal," which was an attack on the Prime Minister's integrity.But the BSA said in its judgement that the item did not state as fact that there was a link between the car deal and the donation.The BSA did not accept that viewers would have been left with this impression or with the impression that the Government had made a 'dodgy deal,'" a statement from the BSA chief executive Dominic SheehanThe BSA said the item included clear statements refuting any suggestion that there was a link.The BSA said viewers would have been able to form their own judgement about the matters raised We are also of the view that the audience would have understood that it was Labour Chris Hipkins who had questioned the Prime Minister's integrity, rather than ONE the statement said.In this respect, we consider that the broadcaster made reasonable efforts to fairly and accurately present the Prime Minister's response to the allegations made