Wha…?
Sunday, April 7th, 2013I confess I’m entirely befuddled by the Dominion Post’s front-page lead on Saturday, “Prosecution for breaching paedophile’s rights”. Can someone help me out here? Isn’t the story conflating the Commission with the Office of Human Rights Proceedings, an independent office within the HRC? But why is the Office of Human Rights Proceedings bringing a “prosecution”? […]
Digital harrassment remedies coming
Thursday, April 4th, 2013Justice Minister Judith Collins has (by and large) accepted the Law Commission’s recommendations to better protect victims of cyber-harrassment. (I have explained and defended and critiqued and defended again the Law Commission’s proposals elsewhere). Note that this is not the same as the Law Commission’s recently confirmed plan to set up a one-stop regulator for the […]
Live public debates on our Constitution
Wednesday, April 3rd, 2013Debating the Constitution During April and May, the NZ Centre for Public Law (with generous support and funding from the NZ Law Foundation) will host a series of debates on issues raised by the Government’s review of the New Zealand constitution. The debates will be broadcast on Radio NZ National. Join us on VUW Kelburn […]
The NZ Herald’s weird response to the Law Commission
Thursday, March 28th, 2013The NZ Herald has editorialised about the Law Commission’s proposal to set up a new News Media Standards Authority. It seems to veer between cautiously welcoming the report, and suggesting that the system ain’t broke. (No mention of the increasing absurdity of having different standards and complaints processes applying to what is essentially identical material, or […]
TVNZ’s weird response to the Law Commission
Thursday, March 28th, 2013Stuff is reporting that the NMSA is “not to broadcasters’ liking” and that “broadcasting agencies said dissolving the BSA would leave gaping holes for their non-news content.” Odd. For one thing, Stuff only seems to have talked to one agency, TVNZ. The TVNZ spokeswoman said she was concerned that broadcasters like TVNZ, which show both news […]
Labour’s weird response to the Law Commission
Thursday, March 28th, 2013News Media Standards Authority: good idea! says Labour. Just make sure there are no political appointments: Consistent ethical standards for all forms of media are necessary but politicians should be kept away from appointing complaints bodies and setting terms of reference, said Labour’s Broadcasting, Communications and IT spokesperson Clare Curran and Justice spokesperson Andrew Little. […]
One-stop-shop for media complaints – Law Commission
Tuesday, March 26th, 2013The NZ Law Commission has recommended that we scrap the Press Council, Broadcasting Standards Authority and nascent Online Media Standards Authority, and replace them with one body setting and policing news standards across the board. The Commission suggests we call it the “News Media Standards Authority” (NMSA). It would look more like the current Press […]
On purpose
Thursday, March 21st, 2013If someone applies for a civil restraining order under our Harrassment Act, there is a defence of lawful purpose. I’ve often wondered just how far this can be taken. It must surely be a lawful purpose to tell someone that you love them. But it’s hard to see that excusing a fellow who pursues this […]
Leveson solution
Thursday, March 21st, 2013If you’re interested in what the British politicians have drawn up to implement the Leveson report, you could do worse that take a gander at this summary.
Law Commission praised
Thursday, March 21st, 2013Last night, delivering the Robin Cooke memorial lecture, UK Court of Appeal judge Dame Mary Arden was full of praise of NZ’s Law Commission’s paper on media regulation. She noted that, unlike the Leveson inquiry, the Law Commission’s brief was to consider media regulation as a whole, not just focus on print media. The Commission’s […]
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