BSA fucks up
Tuesday, February 23rd, 2010The Broadcasting Standards Authority has upheld a complaint against the radio broadcast of Lily Allen’s song “Fuck You”, broadcast on Sunday and Tuesday afternoons on The Edge. I think they were wrong to do so, and I think it demonstrates that they still don’t really understand the Bill of Rights Act. If it were just […]
Michael Laws breaches broadcasting standards again
Tuesday, February 23rd, 2010The BSA has pinged RadioLive talkback host Michael Laws yet again, this time for “blatant misrepresentation”. He had an exchange of emails with a health official concerned with Maori smoking that said: Laws: Stick to trying to get Māori to quit smoking, will you? Not exactly a sparkling success story, is it? Broughton: Not really. […]
Mau about gay issues
Tuesday, February 23rd, 2010Well, recent events have given a certain piquancy to the broadcasting standards complaint about this exchange between Paul Henry and Alison Mau, on Breakfast last year: Henry: …a little bit later in the morning I thought we might talk about the Acting Principal Family Court Judge’s call that it’s time the adoption laws were updated […]
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 […]
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