Are too
Wednesday, November 4th, 2009Remember Erin Leigh? She was working on contract on a climate change communications strategy for the Ministry for the Environment when Clare Curren, another communications adviser, was appointed to oversee her work. Ms Leigh left. A political shitstorm blew up the following year. Was Ms Curren’s appointment politically motivated? Was it really about ideological disagreements […]
Free speech by the numbers
Wednesday, November 4th, 2009In case you were wondering what the First Amendment was all about, US Court of Appeals judge and law and economics whizz Richard Posner has the answer: Ax – Bx = -(pH / (1 + d)n + O)x where the xs are subscripts denoting derivatives and relate to potential strictness of regulation; the n is […]
Bad English
Thursday, October 29th, 2009Let me get this straight: TVNZ7 scripted this ad? What were they thinking? I must say, my first response was the same as Graeme Edgeler’s: this might be an “election programme” under the Broadcasting Act. It’s an offence to broadcast a promo that “advocates support for a candidate or for a political party”. Interestingly, the […]
House of Lords supports dumping criminal libel
Tuesday, October 27th, 2009And about time. We’ve already got rid of it. Mind you, the Aussie state of Victoria, where I am right now, still recognises criminal libel – which includes defamation of dead people and defamation where’s there’s no publication to anyone but the person defamed – and the defences (except truth) aren’t clear. Who knew? Looks […]
Sure enough…
Thursday, October 22nd, 2009The Solicitor-General has applied for Vince Siemer to be held in contempt of court for breaching the court order that he remove from his website his article about a suppressed HC judgment. (This time, he has sensibly just gone for a three-month jail term, seeking to avoid the Bill of Rights right-to-jury issues that continue […]
What’s wrong with trial by media?
Wednesday, October 21st, 2009I get irked by those who rail against “trial by media” as if it’s some general category of wrongdoing. Yes, some reporting of allegedly criminal conduct is unfair, inaccurate or unbalanced, and some may even prejudice an accused person’s right to a fair trial. In such cases, we should by all means criticise the reporting […]
Siemer in contempt again?
Tuesday, October 20th, 2009Yet another chapter is written in the Vince Siemer saga. In this episode, Vince decides that a High Court order suppressing publication of a decision doesn’t apply to him. The decision concerned some pre-trial rulings in concerning the Uruwera defendants, so it’s pretty big deal. Justice Winkelmann suppressed the decision, it seems, out of concern […]
Carter-Rucked
Monday, October 19th, 2009Heavy-hitting UK libel law firm Carter-Ruck has been getting some bad press lately. The Guardian reported that Carter-Ruck (famously referred to as “Carter-Fuck” by its nemesis Private Eye) had gagged it from reporting Parliamentary proceedings. What’s more, the gagged material related to a report concerning a toxic waste spill by giant oil company Trafigura. And […]
Holiday time
Thursday, August 20th, 2009I’m off to Hong Kong, London and the South of Spain for six weeks or so. Then I’ll be based in Melbourne for a few weeks, beginning on October 10. Back in NZ late November. If you want to contact me, best to try claudiasteven@gmail.com, which I’ll try to check regularly.
Irish Supreme Court protects source confidentiality
Thursday, August 20th, 2009The Irish Supreme Court has allowed two journalists to refuse to answer questions that would have made them disclose their sources. Trinity College senior lecturer and blogger Dr Eion O’Dell welcomes the decision, but thinks it falls short of recognising a full-blown journalists’ privilege.
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