Defamation claimant bombs
Sunday, February 21st, 2010Brady Errol Chadwick has suffered a setback in his defamation claim against the Dominion Post. He has been ordered to pay $10,000 security for costs, which means that it’s unlikely his case will progress. This will be a relief to Fairfax since it’s not at all clear the media organisation would have been able to […]
PN suppression: missed angle?
Wednesday, February 17th, 2010Take a gander at this extraordinary passage from the sentencing notes: the judge described the sentencing outcomes in objectionable publications cases as “all over the place with no apparent consistency at all”. Sounds like a news story to me.
PN Name suppression decision considered
Wednesday, February 17th, 2010I think the decision is wrong, but I can sympathise with the judge. He cites R v Wilson & Horton (the American billionaire case) but not the other leading case of R v Liddell, where it was held that: [name suppression orders] are never to be imposed lightly, and in cases of conviction for serious […]
The Palmerston North name suppression decision
Tuesday, February 16th, 2010Is here.
Chasing Ali
Monday, February 15th, 2010The latest development in the Alison Mau saga reads like a media law exam question. On Breakfast TV she took a swipe at Woman’s Day, saying its “paparazzi photographer has been stalking me, my children and my friends for a month now, quite possibly more, following me to the supermarket, the kids’ tennis and touch […]
What can Crown lawyers say to the media?
Wednesday, February 10th, 2010The Crown Law Office has put out a very sensible, but rather general, protocol containing guidance for prosecutors when dealing with media inquiries. It doesn’t mention civil proceedings, but it does apply to the Crown Law Office itself, and the general principles at the beginning seem broad enough to cover civil cases too. It makes […]
Another interesting thing about the Terry case
Tuesday, February 9th, 2010Look at the standard the judge applies to the injunction: the rule in Bonnard v Perryman. This is a famous case that sets the bar very high in defamation cases. Bonnard holds that no pre-trial injunction will be granted in a defamation case unless it’s entirely clear that no defence might apply. In practice, this […]
Super-Injunction denied
Wednesday, February 3rd, 2010A fascinating insight into super-injunctions English football captain John Terry’s failed attempt to obtain an injunction gagging revelation of his affair with his team-mate’s ex contains a lot of fascinating information about so-called super-injunctions. A super-injunction is a gag that not only prevents particular information from being published, it also stops anyone even mentioning the […]
Name revelation
Friday, January 22nd, 2010I see that Whale Oil has been publishing a series of posts under the heading “Interesting names” that contain nothing but a person’s name. I might take a wild stab in the dark and guess that those were names that had been suppressed. Is he breaking the law? It’s an offence to publish a name […]
Crashing and burning
Thursday, January 21st, 2010Valerie Morse has lost her appeal to the Court of Appeal over her conviction for flag-burning at the Anzac Day Dawn Service. (For some reason, this wasn’t regarded as a “decision of public interest”, but it’s posted here). The judges all wrote separate judgments. Justice Arnold and the President of the Court of Appeal, William […]
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