The Media Council has upheld a complaint that a statement on youth crime contained in a Newstalk ZB talkback host’s commentary on crime was not factually based.

The article - headlined Kerre Woodham: When it comes to crime, numbers do not lie - was published on August 29.

The Council said the commentary breached Principle 4 (Comment and Fact) that says material facts on which an opinion is based should be accurate.

The Council also said Newstalk ZB failed to correct the article promptly or give fair prominence to the correction.

The complaint was lodged by Derek Jansen, who initially asked Newstalk ZB what basis there was for the statement that youth crime was up. Statistics published since the article was published show that while there has been a recent rise in youth crime, offences committed by children and teenagers have been falling since 2014.

Mr Jansen said it was a serious problem when misinformation like this was propagated as it could lead to policies pandering to prejudice against young people.

Newstalk ZB took more than a month to respond and amend the commentary, but only after an official complaint had been lodged with the Media Council. The station’s parent company NZME acknowledged the article was inaccurate as there was no factual basis for saying youth offending was up.

The Media Council said in its ruling it was concerned at Newstalk ZB’s handling of this matter. It failed on several levels. It was slow to pick up the mistake and its response was little and late.

It should have been alert to the possibility it had made a mistake, rather than sit back and wait for a formal complaint.

The uncorrected article was on-line for over a month and the change, when it was made, was beyond the time when the article would have had any currency or prominence on its website. It also did not acknowledge a mistake had been made.

The full Media Council ruling can be found on its website https://www.mediacouncil.org.nz/