Our news media had a tough call to make over the weekend on whether or not to report a bomb threat. Did they get it right?

The incident in question related to a trans-Tasman Air New Zealand flight from Wellington that was held on the tarmac at Sydney Airport for an hour over what a passenger described as “a bomb threat”.

Radio New Zealand reported the incident as a bomb threat (after Australian media first did so) and the RNZ report was reproduced by other New Zealand media including NZME, Stuff, and TVNZ. OneNews carried a report on its 6pm bulletin that made no mention of bomb threats but the TVNZ website continued to run with the RNZ story.

The RNZ story quoted a passenger on the flight, who said that the pilot had reported “a slight problem” but 10 minutes later another passenger showed her a news report saying there was a bomb threat. The passenger went on to state the reaction of passengers and offered a theory on the threat: “There may have been a note on the plane – that is what caused this – so we all sort of gathered the note had been picked up on the plane.”

For its part, Air New Zealand simply issued a statement saying it was aware of “a security incident” on the flight and that “standard security protocols” were followed.

There was a delay of about an hour in disembarking and processing the passengers, and the return flight was cancelled. However, the operations of the airport do not appear to have been otherwise affected.

The question is: Should the incident have been reported as a bomb threat? Continue reading “Issues of avoidance: Bomb threats…or news in general” →