Protesters ahoy
Tuesday, April 12th, 2011Andrew Geddis on Pundit has posted an analysis of some of the legal and constitutional issues surrounding Greenpeace’s protest against mining surveyers on the seas off the East Cape. Among other interesting points, he suggests that the seas can’t be a public place for the purposes of a charge of disorderly behaviour. I’ve suggested they […]
Fuck the police indeed
Tuesday, April 12th, 2011If the facts in this story are accurate, this seems a very questionable exercise of police powers: A number of people at the gig said [singer Tiki] Taane began singing “f*** the police” when they carried out a standard inspection of the club. When they approached him afterwards “things got out of hand”, a person […]
Que CERA, CERA?
Thursday, April 7th, 2011A scenario: a staff-member at the new Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority leaks some information to the media. Maybe it’s about waste or inefficiency in the recovery effort. Maybe it’s about a raging personality conflict hampering operations. Maybe it’s about a contractor on the take. The minister and the chief executive are furious about the leak. […]
A rod for their own backs
Thursday, April 7th, 2011In the past week or so, both Fran O’Sullivan and Brian Rudman have assailed the courts for removing the Urewera 18’s right to a jury trial. Both are troubled that the reasoning behind the decisions (from the High Court, and then the Court of Appeal) is suppressed. Both say it’s difficult to see how the […]
Worst defamation ever?
Thursday, April 7th, 2011Dismissing Vince Siemer’s appeal against NZ’s highest ever defamation damages award, the Court of Appeal said: We have not had our attention drawn to any worse case of defamation in the British Commonwealth, and our own researches have not disclosed one. Really? It’s hard to imagine they looked very hard. What about the famous case […]
Marshalling the facts?
Thursday, March 31st, 2011You may recall that I blogged about a student who accused journalist Jonathan Marshall of trying to persuade him to lie to university staff to extract information from them. The Sunday Star-Times’ editor called it “complete fantasy”. I’ve just had another long conversation with the student concerned. His memory of Jonathan’s approach is detailed. He says it happened after a tutorial […]
18-year-old in Hughes incident awarded injunction
Tuesday, March 29th, 2011The student who made the complaint against Darren Hughes has obtained a High Court injunction preventing him from being identified. The claim is made against Fairfax, APN, TVNZ, MediaWorks and bloggers Danyl McLauchlan and David Farrer. The injunction, however, applies to anyone with notice of it. It would be a contempt of court to breach […]
Jonathan Marshall’s methods
Tuesday, March 29th, 2011I have been contacted by a student at Victoria University who said he was approached by the Sunday Star-Times’ Jonathan Marshall at university last week, on the hunt for information about the 18-year-old at the centre of the Darren Hughes incident. He said Marshall asked him to go to a university office and pretend to […]
Justice: A book so good that Garth McVicar plans to read it
Monday, March 28th, 2011A new book on the justice system has hit the bookshop shelves. It’s called “Justice: Speaking Up For Crime’s Silent Victims”. The cover features a staunch-looking Garth McVicar, whose name also appears in large letters at the bottom. Guess who wrote this book. Hint: not Garth McVicar. I presume when you open it up you are […]
Paul Henry broadcasting complaint
Sunday, March 27th, 2011The BSA has found that TVNZ’s actions in response to Paul Henry’s ill-judged comments about the Governor-General were sufficient. Good call, I think. Along the way, though, they also found that the comments breached standards of good taste and decency, fairness and discrimination. Perhaps that’s not too surprising. TVNZ had upheld the complaint on all […]
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