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Parole prisoners gagged
By Steven | May 14, 2012
I see from today’s story about convicted rapist Brad Shipton that one of his parole conditions is that he give no interviews (presumably to the media).
I guess this is to protect victims from anguish caused by what he might say. But I have to say, that seems an extreme restriction on his speech rights. It seems that he could not, for example, criticise the conditions in prison, or argue that his conviction was procedurally flawed. I rather suspect that, as usual, no-one has thought hard about this, and in particular, considered whether this plain restriction on his right to freedom of expression in section 14 of the Bill of Rights Act can be demonstrably justified in a free and democratic society under section 5.
I also wonder how often this sort of parole condition is imposed.
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