Law Commission paper on privacy
Monday, March 9th, 2009The Law Commission has released yet another paper on privacy. “These are big issues and they are hard,” says Commission president Sir Geoffrey Palmer. 300 pages big and hard, in fact, building on 2008’s 222-page paper “Privacy: concepts and issues” (discussed here), 2007’s 76-page “A conceptual approach to privacy” by Mark Hickford, and that’s not counting […]
Police search warrants against the media
Tuesday, March 3rd, 2009In light of the police’s impending execution of a search warrant on the offices of the Herald on Sunday over Holmes’s (apparently) recorded interview with Tony Veitch, I thought y’all might be interested in the Court of Appeal’s guidelines for the issue of such warrants (from TVNZ v Attorney-General [1995] 2 NZLR 641): One guideline, […]
Another Bain beat-up
Monday, March 2nd, 2009I think the SST overplayed its lead story on the Bain jury. The headline: David Bain murder retrial: Jurors must be tested for bias – expert The first two paras: A TOP law professor has called for tougher testing of jurors to minimise the risk of prejudice in the retrial of David Bain on five murder charges. […]
A copyright anomaly
Friday, February 27th, 2009Here’s a quirk in the Copyright Act that you may not be aware of: TV stations can use news photographs (even if they don’t have copyright) under the fair dealing defence, but newspapers can’t. I suppose this is because a broadcast or film is usually viewed fleetingly, so does not create a permanent record of […]
A post on 92A that David Farrar probably won’t link to
Tuesday, February 24th, 2009You may have noticed that I didn’t join the blackout in protest against section 92A. It’s not that I don’t have concerns about the law. As you can see from the post below, it doesn’t seem to me that it’s been well thought through. I’m open to the idea that it goes too far. But […]
Officials drop the BORA on 92A
Monday, February 23rd, 2009Our Bill of Rights vetting process has failed miserably again. This is the system that’s supposed to pick up rights issues when a Bill is introduced to Parliament and consider whether the proposals are demonstrably justified. When a Bill affects free speech, officials are supposed to highlight the problem and ask questions like: “What’s the […]
Law Commission looks at suppression laws
Thursday, February 19th, 2009The Law Commmission has put out an issues paper on suppressing names and evidence. They’re seeking input, but you’d better be quick. The paper sets out the various ways names and evidence can be suppressed, and asks whether reform is needed. In general, they’re looking at recommending that the grounds on which suppression can be granted […]
Chris not Christians
Thursday, February 19th, 2009I’m not a Christian. I think the Biblical creation story is daft. I don’t think it should be taught in schools. But I do think that when a serious radio programme debates the issue “Should creation be taught in schools?” the station should at least find someone who thinks it should to include in the […]
Ethics inquiry into 13-year-old dad story
Thursday, February 19th, 2009The UK’s Press Complaints Commission is looking into the ethics of The Sun’s story about a 13-year-old fathering a child. On what grounds, you ask? In NZ, the issue might be the child’s privacy (can a boy really consent to a story like that?) or whether the paper had “particular care and consideration for reporting […]
Boscawen appeal fails
Tuesday, February 17th, 2009The Court of Appeal has thrown out the Bill of Rights challenge to the Electoral Finance Act. That’s not to say that they thought the EFA was consistent with the BORA. Just that they wouldn’t consider the issue. I’m not too surprised that they threw out the challenge to the Attorney-General’s decision not to report […]
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