Inquiring minds want to know
Sunday, August 26th, 2012Do we have to rename the Beast of Blenheim the Beast of Whanganui?
Lawsuit for intrusion allowed in NZ
Sunday, August 26th, 2012At a time when the British tabloids are wringing their hands over whether to publish naked photos of Prince Harry, the High Court in NZ has ruled that the mere taking of such photos, whether or not they are published, is an actionable breach of privacy. The case involved a woman who was filmed naked […]
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. […]
SC agrees to hear Siemer contempt appeal
Monday, July 30th, 2012Do judges have power to suppress the contents of whole judgments in criminal cases? If not, then perhaps Vince Siemer has a defence to the contempt ruling against him for posting a suppressed judgment in the Urewera case. The High Court and Court of Appeal said “yes” (discussions here and here). The Supreme Court has […]
Some sense at last
Saturday, July 28th, 2012Paul Chambers, the guy who was convicted of sending a menacing communication for a tweet about blowing up an airport after it was closed due to bad weather, has won his appeal. In fact it took two appeals before he got some judges who realised what everyone else knew from the get-go: this was joke. The […]
How to apply the Bill of Rights
Friday, July 27th, 2012The Broadcasting Standards Authority (in the wake of several High Court decisions, and perhaps aware of some of the criticisms I made with Claudia Geiringer) commissioned me to provide some advice on how the Bill of Rights applies to them and how they can practically integrate it into their decision-making. They have posted my paper […]
Uninsightful journalism
Monday, July 23rd, 2012Maybe I’m being overly nitpicky in objecting to this headline in a story on nzherald.co.nz: Harawira’s asset sale comments ‘insightful’ – BSA The Broadcasting Standards Authority was rejecting a complaint from Family First over a 3 News story that mentioned John Key’s assurance that asset sale share prices would be “affordable for a lot of […]
Scott Guy Verdict: Survey reveals journalists don’t have a clue
Thursday, July 12th, 2012According to a recent poll, 48% of us think it’s likely that Ewen Macdonald killed Scott Guy. Only 20% of us think it’s likely that he was not guilty. Apparently, the Dominion Post believes that this means that: …just 20 per cent of people surveyed agreed with Ewen Macdonald being acquitted of slaying Mr Guy […]
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 […]
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