Billboards for Voices For Freedom’s New Media Platform Spark Concern

Words by Ethan Rogacion (he/him)

CW: Homophobia, Transphobia, Racism.

A new billboard erected above Cuba Street promoting Reality Check Radio has caused controversy amongst Pōneke residents and sparked discussion online. Reality Check Radio (RCR) is a new media venture by Voices For Freedom (VFF), an organisation infamous for promoting disinformation about the Covid-19 pandemic.

Launched in March, Reality Check Radio is an exclusively online media network who, according to their website, seek to be “an oasis of rational thought in an age of cancel-culture, censorship and false narratives”. The outlet has previously produced content that has denied climate change, spread false claims about vaccines and Covid-19, and amplified transphobic rhetoric in an effort to combat the “woke agenda”. 

The website features four main hosts, including Chantelle Baker, an online disinformation influencer who rose to prominence during the 2022 occupation of Parliament. Baker is joined by former 1News newsreader Peter Williams, former RNZ presenter Paul Brennan, and former Act MP Rodney Hide. The outlet also features a cast of other prominent voices from the disinformation space.

According to the New Zealand Companies Register, the directors of RCR’s holding company are the same three founders of VFF. 

The outlet claims to be the “fastest growing media platform in New Zealand” and encourages donations from listeners. However, its parent organisation, VFF, has been scrutinised in the past for its non-transparent financial sources, with questions about their links to overseas disinformation networks. VFF’s website encourages supporters to donate to them in an effort to “beat censorship using old-school marketing such as flyers and billboards.”

This isn’t the first time that VFF have come under fire for their campaigns. Billboards promoting anti-vaccination rhetoric have been spotted around Pōneke in previous years, prompting a number of submissions to the Advertising Standards Authority. The company that has hosted their billboards in the past, Jolly Billboards, is the same company hosting the current RCR campaign.

According to her LinkedIn, Sally Cogle, a candidate for Christchurch’s Linwood Ward in 2022, is Jolly Billboard’s National Sales Manager. According to Stuff, Cogle has repeatedly promoted anti-vax rhetoric on her Facebook and has ties to VFF, although she denies being a member. Cogle is also connected to Christchurch’s conspiracy theory network, with Stuff reporting that she is a member of Room 102—an organisation that has associations with far-right extremists—which interrupted a drag queen storytime at the city’s Tūranga library in March. 

Wellington City Councillor Tamatha Paul has expressed unease about the billboards, saying that she “has long been concerned about racist, anti-abortion, and transphobic billboards that have sprung up across Wellington.” Paul said that “there is no place for hatred, bigotry and discrimination in our city”, and that RCR “simply feeds into the high volumes of misinformation the public are exposed to.” 

Salient has approached VFF, RCR, and Jolly Billboards for comment.