SST sends blogger a defamation nastrygram
Friday, February 11th, 2011The Sunday Star-Times has sent a legal letter warning Brian Edwards about his post about its reporting on Amanda Hotchin. The SST quoted her saying: We don’t have to justify where we get our money from or what it is spent on to anyone. I don’t care what anyone says. Brian Edwards weighed in with a blog criticising Hotchin. But […]
Book your copies now
Thursday, February 3rd, 2011I’m working my way through the newly released 6th edition of Media Law in New Zealand by John Burrows and Ursula Cheer. (Actually, this updated version was mostly done by Ursula). It is as comprehensive as ever. If you’re wondering how much media law there has been in the last five years, we now have […]
Hot off the press
Wednesday, February 2nd, 2011John Key’s remarks on RadioSport about Liz Hurley being hot have now hit the UK’s Daily Mail, I see. I’m more interested in why John Key is the only political leader given a weekly interview slot on RadioSport – and Breakfast TV, actually. This was the widely overlooked angle in the Paul Henry saga. I […]
Sad news
Tuesday, February 1st, 2011I’m sorry to have to note the passing of Sandra Moran, a doyenne of New Zealand media law. She was a principal at Oakley Moran and a former president of the Film and Literature Board of Review. I worked with her a little over the past couple of the years and she was generous with […]
Source of contention
Tuesday, February 1st, 2011When – if ever – should journalists be forced to disclose their confidential sources? It’s been a hot issue lately. The Crown applied to court for an order requiring TV3 to provide identifying information of the Waiouru Army Medals thief after John Campbell’s anonymised TV interview with him. The Serious Fraud Office compelled the National […]
Corrections corrected
Thursday, January 27th, 2011Remember the prisoner who sued the Department of Corrections for confiscating and destroying his Cosmopolitan magazine? (Two hand-drawn pictures were also destroyed). He won. Turns out, it was an easy call. Under the Corrections Act, prisoner property can only be destroyed if the prisoner fails to comply with a requirement to remove it, and the […]
Devlin name-suppression beat-up
Tuesday, January 25th, 2011Russell Brown has a terrific post demonstrating yet again the way the media have lost the plot about name suppression. He notes that no judge ever actually made a determination of the suppression application on the merits: an interim order was made by consent so that the application could be properly argued later. I suspect […]
Tweeting in court
Tuesday, January 25th, 2011The English Chief Justice, Lord Judge (yep, that’s his name), has laid down some interim guidelines on tweeting in court. In short, he suggests that tweeting won’t usually prejudice the administration of justice, so it seems that permission should usually be granted. On the other hand, in some circumstances there may be reason to ban […]
No ordinary Joe
Monday, January 24th, 2011I interviewed Justice Joe Williams for The Court Report, about being a judge, his time as Chair of the Waitangi Tribunal, and about being the only judge on the bench with a top-20 hit. His responses are thoughtful and moving, I think.
Erin Leigh succeeds in defamation appeal
Sunday, January 23rd, 2011The Court of Appeal’s decision is pretty much exactly what I predicted here. The briefing paper and the oral briefing about PR staffer Erin Leigh’s departure from the Minstry of the Environment are – contrary to Dobson J’s ruling last year – capable of defaming her. But her negligence claim is a loser. The real […]
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