Mike Hosking says TVNZ 'threatened to sue us' over Maiki Sherman story

Mike Hosking says TVNZ threatened legal action against NZME if it was to publish a story about its political editor allegedly using a homophobic slur.

On Tuesday, Finance Minister Nicola Willis said she shut down an event in her office last year after "offensive language" was used during a function she hosted for press gallery journalists.

Willis held pre-Budget drinks in her office in May where an incident between two journalists is alleged to have happened.

Political commentator Ani O'Brien wrote on her Substack page on Tuesday morning that TVNZ political editor Maiki Sherman allegedly used a homophobic slur against Stuff journalist Lloyd Burr.

On Wednesday morning, Newstalk ZB host Hosking told listeners his producer, Sam Carran, was pulling information together on a story about the alleged incident last year and had gone to TVNZ for comment.

It was at that point, Hosking said, TVNZ "threatened to sue us".

"We got the big broad-based fat letter from the lawyers - it was one of those very wide-ranging letters you get from corporate lawyers basically encompassing everything.

"It doesn't matter what you say, when you say, why you say it, how you say it, they're going to go you for something. It was one of those letters."

Hosking said such letters don't faze him - but corporate lawyers do worry about them.

It had a "chilling effect" on the story and interest waned, he said.

That was until O'Brien wrote about it on Tuesday and the story went public.

"Should we have gone a bit cold on it ourselves? Personally, no, but we did, and you can ask NZME about that another time if you want to.

"The good news is that in this modern day and age, it was always going to come out in some way, shape or form."

At Parliament on Tuesday, Deputy Prime Minister David Seymour was asked about the possibility of legal threats to stop NZME publishing the story.

In response, Seymour said TVNZ are "supposed to be defenders of press freedom, not attackers of it".

"I think if that's what they've been doing against NZME, that's really surprising. And frankly, this is for all you guys.

"I mean, you want people to trust the press. This behavior doesn't help. There's a lot of people here, good reporters, who are innocent of any of this, but you'll get dragged down with it too."

On Tuesday, TVNZ responded to RNZ's questions on the allegations made against Sherman, saying: "We do not comment on employment matters."

In a statement, Stuff said: "Stuff Group stands by, and has complete faith in, Lloyd Burr's account of the events and his conduct in Minister Willis' office last May.

"We will continue to respect his wishes not to comment further on what occurred that night."

On Tuesday on her way to Question Time, Willis told reporters she was "absolutely not" involved in what was published by O'Brien on Substack.

"I have absolutely not been involved in talking to that blogger, in being involved in any way - in fact, I have worked to keep it as private as possible due to my concern for the individual who was the subject of the slur and their desire for it not to enter the public domain."

When contacted for further comment, TVNZ said it does not comment on employment matters.

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