Radio New Zealand says it is “confident balance is being achieved” in its election coverage, after questions about how often Opportunity and its leader Qiulae Wong have been turning up on its Facebook page.

Chris Lynch Media counted nine RNZ Facebook posts about the party in a single 48 hour period this month.

Among them was a story about a health debate between Labour and National’s health spokespeople.

RNZ still managed to illustrate it with a photo of Wong.

It was not only us keeping count.

RNZ’s own followers have been asking in the comments why the taxpayer funded broadcaster seems so taken with Wong and her party.

“RNZ is obsessed with this woman,” one wrote.

Another tallied up the coverage herself. “How many pro-opportunity party news items per day is RNZ up to now. 7? 9? 10?”

One follower was more blunt. “RNZ on the payroll for Opportunity Party,” she wrote, a comment that drew more than 190 reactions.

Others asked whether the coverage now amounted to electioneering, with voting already under way. “Thanks for the wholly unnecessary update, RNZ,” one wrote.

Perhaps the driest response came from a follower who joked he had become anxious. “Jeez I hadn’t seen RNZ report on Qiulae Wong in at least half an hour, I was starting to worry…”

We asked RNZ whether that volume was proportionate, and who decides how often each party appears on its social media.

“During an election campaign, coverage of individual parties will naturally ebb and flow according to news value, developments on the campaign trail, and events and announcements,” an RNZ spokesperson said.

The broadcaster suggested we had been looking at the wrong window.

“Providing a snapshot over a small period can lead to a misleading picture,” the spokesperson said.

Across the full week from October 19 to 25, Labour and National each appeared in more than twice as many of RNZ’s election related Facebook posts as the Opportunity Party, according to RNZ.

“RNZ frequently reviews its content to ensure balance. While we recognise that audiences may have different views about individual stories or the mix of coverage they see or hear, we are confident balance is being achieved.”

RNZ is not the only one fielding questions. The Platform’s Sean Plunket, a former RNZ broadcaster and once communications director of The Opportunities Party during the 2017 election, has publicly asked how much of RNZ’s election coverage featured the party compared with everyone else.

His question prompted NZ Media World to analyse a month of state broadcaster bulletins. It found Opportunity received favourable treatment in 17 of 33 items, although most of those ran on 1News rather than RNZ.

Labour leader Chris Hipkins also believes the media has given the smaller parties too much attention this campaign, although he did not single out RNZ.

“I think in this campaign there were some in the media who were a bit bored with the campaign at the beginning and wanted to, I guess, liven it up, and so have given disproportionate coverage to smaller parties,” he told Chris Lynch Media in Rolleston.

He said that had made it harder for the bigger parties to compete.

RNZ promotes itself as one of the country’s most trusted news sources. Its critics say a steady stream of Wong posts sits awkwardly with that claim.

New Zealand votes on November 7.