Breach of confidence
« Previous EntriesA quick response to Matthew Hooton
Thursday, May 30th, 2019I see Matthew Hooton has noted that I have acted for Nicky Hager and accused me of hypocrisy for suggesting that National broke the law with its budget leaks. He seems to think his logic is obvious. I guess it’s that Hager published confidential material leaked from the government (see especially: Other People’s Wars and […]
Budget leak: Nats’ behaviour “entirely appropriate”?
Wednesday, May 29th, 2019I’ve just been listening to Simon Bridges’ press conference at Parliament about the budget leak. His main point was to deny that the leaked budget material was a result of a hack. But he made the broader claim that the Nats’ behaviour throughout was “entirely appropriate”. He said there had been “nothing illegal or anything […]
The blogger and the journalist
Tuesday, October 28th, 2014The Whale certainly created a splash in the last election. More accurately, it was investigative journalist Nicky Hager and his book Dirty Politics that created the splash. The Whale – controversial right-wing blogger Cameron Slater and his Whale Oil blog, whose emails were leaked to Mr Hager – copped most of the spray. (I should […]
Interim injunction against EQC blogger
Wednesday, April 10th, 2013I feel as if I write this same thing about once every year. Someone rushes to court to get an injunction preventing the release of information. It’s based on breach of confidence. Here it’s the Earthquake Commission seeking to prevent the release of a database containing assessments about 83,000 Christchurch claims. The court grants the […]
Kiwi Rail injunction lifted
Sunday, August 26th, 2012They say they had nothing to hide and just wanted to protect free and frank discussion. Clearly, they had nothing to hide except for the things they didn’t want the public to know they were discussing. The lifting of the injunction rather calls into question the wisdom of spending public money taking out the interim […]
Railing against illegal disclosure
Friday, August 24th, 2012On late Wednesday night, Kiwi Rail obtained an injunction stopping Radio NZ publishing copies of a leaked draft plan about its infrastructure and engineering. The next day (after distributing a press release about the injunction, I’m told) Labour MP Phil Twyford used parts of the draft plan to ask questions of government minister Gerry Brownlee. […]
Threats! Email! Action!
Tuesday, June 5th, 2012Barrister and privacy whizz John Edwards has found a way to get a quick injunction when privacy protection is urgently needed. It helps that the case looks like a slam dunk. The circumstances have a familiar ring: an ACC claimant mistakenly given private details about some other claimant’s claim, including her rehabilitation, threatens by email to release them, then when […]
Of sneaky devices
Sunday, November 13th, 2011John Key’s cunning plan to send a signal to the troops by sitting down for a cuppa with Act’s John Banks may have come undone by another sneaky device. It seems that the conversation was recorded and may contain “game-changing” comments, according to the Herald on Sunday. The paper says a freelance cameraman was stopped from […]
The Wikileaks Papers
Tuesday, March 1st, 2011Who said this, and when? It’s time to quit making national heroes of those who steal public secrets and publish them in the newspaper? When whole filing cabinets can be stolen there can’t be orderly government any more. He’s offering aid and comfort to the enemy, putting himself above the President, Congress and the whole […]
SST sends blogger a defamation nastrygram
Friday, February 11th, 2011The Sunday Star-Times has sent a legal letter warning Brian Edwards about his post about its reporting on Amanda Hotchin. The SST quoted her saying: We don’t have to justify where we get our money from or what it is spent on to anyone. I don’t care what anyone says. Brian Edwards weighed in with a blog criticising Hotchin. But […]
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