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Sparking debate
By Steven | August 10, 2009
I’ll be in the Court of Appeal with Tony Shaw tomorrow trying to make the world safe for flag-burners. Specifically: Valerie Morse, who lit a flag over the road from the Anzac Day dawn service at Wellington’s Cenotaph in 2007 to protest our militaristic foreign policy. She’s been convicted of offensive behaviour. Is this a demonstrably justified restriction of her free speech rights under the Bill of Rights? We’ll find out. Should be an interesting day’s argument.
Update: argument is over. It’s fair to say that the judges did not seem particularly sympathetic to the flag-burners at ANZAC day services, but at the end were toying with the idea that a criminal conviction may be disproportionate, as opposed to simply moving such protesters along, or merely arresting them for a short while, or warning them to stop and prosecuting them for obstruction if they persisted.
We now await the decision. Watch this space.
Topics: NZ Bill of Rights Act, Protest speech | Comments Off on Sparking debate