'No bathroom' in Taj Mahal joke by TVNZ host didn't denigrate India, BSA rules
TV host Paul Henry. (Supplied photo)
TVNZ says the comments referred to traveller’s diarrhoea, which is a known travel health risk in some countries.
A comment by 'The Chase New Zealand' host Paul Henry referring to diarrhoea and bathroom access at the Taj Mahal did not breach broadcasting standards or denigrate India or Indian people, the Broadcasting Standards Authority (BSA) ruled in a split decision on May 6, 2026.
Henry has earlier courted controversy when in 2010 he laughed a number of times as he mispronounced the surname of the then chief minister of Delhi, the late Sheila Dikshit. Indian officials had condemned the remarks as "racist and bigoted".
In the latest row, the authority considered a complaint about Henry's comments aired on TVNZ 1 in November 2025 after a contestant said she would use prize money to visit the Taj Mahal in India.
Henry said, "You’ve got to be so careful what you eat…I’ve got like, oh, I’m not going to exaggerate, three or four friends, who’ve exploded in the Taj Mahal… it’s very hard to find a bathroom.”
Later in the programme he said, “$45,000, Taj Mahal, you can buy a lot of wet wipes with that.”
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The complainant said the comments reinforced harmful stereotypes about India and Indian people being dirty, unsafe and unhygienic.
They argued the remarks linked travel to India with gastrointestinal illness and lack of sanitation, and said the Taj Mahal was used in toilet humour.
The complaint also said the comments were repeated through the later “wet wipes” reference and argued that India and Indian people were implicitly targeted.
The complainant referred to other comments made by Henry years ago involving people of Indian heritage, arguing these should be considered as context.
TVNZ rejected the complaint, saying the comments referred to traveller’s diarrhoea, which is a known travel health risk in some countries.
It referred to public health information about gastrointestinal illness from contaminated food and water, and information that traveller’s diarrhoea is common in many regions including Asia.
TVNZ said the comments did not denigrate Indian people and were not criticism of any group.
It also said similar humour had been directed at European travel experiences within the same episode. The broadcaster said previous complaints involving Henry were not relevant to the decision.
The four-member authority was split 2-2 on the decision, but since Chair Susie Staley's vote was in favour of TVNZ the complaint was rejected.
A BSA press release summarized the majority view as: “The comments appeared intended as a humorous anecdote focussed on the presenter’s friends’ travel experiences.”
It also said: “Interpreting the comments as insinuating Indian people were dirty, unsafe or unhygienic would require us to read in a meaning too far removed from the comments themselves.”
The majority acknowledged the complainant found the comments offensive, but said the threshold for discrimination and denigration had not been met.
Authority members John Gillespie and Aroha Beck disagreed and said the complaint should have been upheld.
They said: “The underlying insinuation…was that India and Indian people are ‘dirty’ and ‘unhygienic’.”
The minority also said: “This further associated India, and Indian people, with diarrhoea, contamination, and a lack of hygiene.”
