Carol Hirschfeld has resigned from RNZ over a meeting with broadcasting minister Clare Curran.

Texts between the communications minister Clare Curran and former RNZ head of news Carol Hirschfeld may have triggered Hirschfeld's resignation.

Stuff has been told by an RNZ source that Curran and Hirschfeld communicated by text over a period of several days ahead of their meeting at Wellington's Cafe Astoria in December of last year - a meeting that has now seen Hirschfeld resign and Curran come under serious political pressure.

Curran's office has confirmed that the meeting was arranged by text message.

HAGEN HOPKINS/GETTY IMAGES Clare Curran's office has confirmed that the meeting was arranged by text.

The meeting took place two days before Curran met with the RNZ board and top managers - sparking suspicions within RNZ that Curran wanted to pump Hirschfeld for information about potential roadblocks to Labour's plan for the state broadcaster to set up a free-to-air TV arm.

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Board chair Richard Griffin and chief executive Paul Thompson are known to be unenthusiastic about the TV plan, and would rather put the money into other platforms. Hirschfeld, who came to RNZ from a broadcasting background, backed the proposal.

DAVID WHITE / STUFF Carol Hirschfeld has resigned from her role with RNZ.

Griffin is also seen as being on Curran's hit-list, after the pair sparred for many years while she was opposition broadcasting spokesman. His term as chair expires in April and there is an expectation he will not be reappointed.

Hirschfeld resigned on Tuesday after admitting she had misled RNZ bosses about the meeting. She repeatedly told RNZ bosses she ran into Curran by chance and that was how the coffee meeting came about.

A source has told Stuff that she stuck to her story until she was confronted with evidence at a meeting over the weekend that contradicted her version of events.

It could not be confirmed if Curran and Hirschfeld's text exchanges formed part of the evidence shown to Hirschfeld.

It is likely, however, that Curran's office would have received an Official Information Act request for those exchanges. By Tuesday night Curran's office could confirm that a process was "in train" for the text messages to be released.

Hirschfeld was confronted on Sunday March 25 by Thompson after the minister's office had informed Griffin and Thompson on March 22 that the coffee date had been planned for some days.

Supplied A screenshot from Curran's diary on the day. Emphasis added by Stuff.

Curran's office had already informed a staff member at RNZ on March 1 after Griffin and Thompson inadvertently misled a select committee by repeating Hirschfeld's version of events: that Hirschfeld had run into Curran by chance after the gym one day.

This staff member who was told on March 1 informed Thompson of the discrepancy. Thompson again asked Hirschfeld to explain her version of events.

"I immediately questioned Carol again about the circumstances of the meeting and she again maintained it was a coincidental meeting," Thompson told Stuff.

Supplied RNZ chief executive Paul Thompson found out that Hirschfeld's account was wrong after Curran's office contacted RNZ on March 1.

"We passed that information on to the staff member from the minister's office."

Griffin and Thompson are expected to be summoned back to the select committee on Thursday to correct the record and explain what took place.

RNZ is reeling over the controversy, with one source describing it as a "debacle" and a disaster for the broadcaster.

Maarten Holl/Stuff RNZ board chair Richard Griffin inadvertently misled a select committee.

Hirschfeld was a popular and respected member of the senior team and no one could understand why she did it.

While there were suspicions about the minister's motive for organising the meeting, meanwhile, none of the evidence "would stand up in court", Stuff was told.

Hirschfeld declined to comment when approached by Stuff.

CURRAN ORIGINALLY DID NOT MENTION MEETING

Opposition broadcasting spokeswoman Melissa Lee asked Curran about any meetings with TVNZ or RNZ on 7 December, soon after media commentator John Drinnan had reported the meeting.

Curran did not initially mention the meeting, later amending the record to note it as a "informal breakfast".

Publicly Curran did not push back against the notion that the breakfast was coincidental, but she did not back this version of events either.

A page from her diary for the day released to Stuff show the meeting with "CH" was pre-planned and scheduled to run an hour.

Curran said she had been naive to not see the meeting as an "official" one.

Hirschfeld's resignation comes amid the Government's plans to significantly boost funding for the state broadcaster.

Labour's pre-election policy promised a $38m annual funding boost for RNZ and NZ on Air.