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 […]
Meanwhile, over at Whale HQ
Thursday, January 14th, 2010Mr Oil has an odd post calling attention to the discrepancy between the “liberal crim huggers” (does that include the people who support him, one wonders?) who point out that many name suppressions exist to protect victims, including one of the ones he’s alleged to have breached, and this case: An Auckland methodist minister has […]
Solicitor-General not going Whale hunting
Thursday, January 14th, 2010The Solicitor-General has decided not to pursue Mr Oil for contempt of court “at this stage”, though he says he supports the prosecutions for name suppression. He adds that contempt proceedings “remain an option” if Mr Oil’s offending continues or escalates, but would probably be brought after the suppression breaches trial.
Simunovich case settled
Thursday, January 14th, 2010The long-running high-stakes defamation battle over the media’s allegations about corruption in the fishing industry has been settled, at least with respect to some of the plaintiffs, with a payment of damages and an apology. Vince Siemer puts the settlement figure at $15 million. Stuff reports TVNZ says it’s about $1.5 million, which strikes me […]
A whale of a campaign
Tuesday, January 12th, 2010Sigh. I’ve been avoiding weighing in on Whale Oil’s campaign to reform NZ’s suppression laws, or failing that, render them useless. (In my absence, Andrew Geddis has done a good job). But it’s an issue that won’t die. It doesn’t help that the media seem endlessly fascinated by it, and by him. I won’t attempt […]
New Canadian responsible journalism defamation defence
Wednesday, December 23rd, 2009The Canadian Supreme Court has followed most of the rest of the common law world in developing a privilege to publish information in the public interest, providing the publication was “responsible”. Both are elements for the defence to prove. It’s broadly similar to the UK defence in Reynolds – so it’s wider than the current versions […]
TVNZ upholds Paul Henry complaint
Monday, December 21st, 2009TVNZ’s complaints committee has found that Paul Henry breached the taste and decency standard with his comments on Susan Boyle on Breakfast last month. He giggled when reporting that she had been starved of oxygen at birth and said she was “retarded” and you could see it from her photograph. It’s worse when you see […]
“Comedian” child sex accused name suppression
Monday, December 21st, 2009It seems that a “comedian” has been granted name suppression in connection with charges that he has had unlawful sexual connection with a child under 12, his daughter. This isn’t some namby-pamby judge covering up for a celebrity. This suppression kicks in automatically under the Criminal Justice Act, I think. Alleged sex crime victims are given name suppression […]
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