Talkback officially a balance-free zone
Thursday, January 22nd, 2009In this extraordinary decision, issued this month, the BSA has effectively re-written the Broadcasting Act and exempted talkback radio from the balance standard. It also seems to largely give talkback shows a pass when it comes to fairness complaints. The BSA had already established a rule that talkback hosts could be inaccurate pretty much whenever […]
Gold star awards
Wednesday, January 7th, 2009David Farrar weighs in on the drink-driving debate with the sort of thoughtful analysis that threatens to give blogging a good name. NoRightTurn does the same thing with the Crown Law Office’s vet of the Domestic Violence (Enhancing Safety) Bill. Well done, those chaps.
Misjudged
Thursday, December 18th, 2008Two of our top judges recently denied a Fairfax journalist permission to speak to jurors about the strengths and weaknesses of the jury system, even though the journalist promised not to identify the jurors or the defendants or discuss the particulars of the cases. The judges cited Solicitor-General v Radio NZ, and said the request “lacks […]
Defamation: sometimes it IS a laughing matter
Tuesday, December 16th, 2008Justice Tugendhart has thrown out Elton John’s defamation case against the Guardian for publishing a spoof diary entry. The judge said it was “obviously a form of teasing” and no reasonable reader would take defamatory meanings from it. Chalk one up on the free speech side of the complete mess that is the sector of […]
Street-illegal
Tuesday, December 9th, 2008Here’s some free advice to any busker accused of falling foul of Auckland City Council’s extraordinary new policy on street theatre requiring buskers to have a sufficient repertoire of songs to last out their performance (maximum playing time: one hour) without repetition: 1. thank the authorised officer kindly, 2. apologise for the breach of the […]
Siemer in Wonderland 2
Sunday, December 7th, 2008Those dastardly Court of Appeal judges, O’Regan and Arnold JJ, having brazenly refused to recuse themselves from Siemer’s case, cunningly affected to hide their biases by asking questions of counsel that rather suggested some sympathy with Siemer’s right-to-jury argument… The real news flash from the hearing was that the Crown explicitly conceded that contempt defendants […]
Siemer in Wonderland
Wednesday, December 3rd, 2008Vince Siemer is presenting his case, by videolink from Auckland, to the Court of Appeal. He has told the judges that he has “considerable respect for the institution” of the courts. This submission is somewhat compromised, it’s fair to say, by the fact that he is dressed up as Alice in Wonderland, complete with blue frock, white apron […]
Supreme Court to hear defamation case
Monday, December 1st, 2008The sprawling trawling case is off to the Supreme Court. It’s pretty much for defamation train-spotters only – the appeal concerns pre-trial skirmishes about points of pleading (listed below). But these issues matter quite a lot, as they set the boundaries for the arguments and evidence that can be advanced in an attemtpt to establish […]
Right!
Monday, November 24th, 2008And here’s a political ad complaint I think the Advertising Standards Complaint Board got right. Again, it’s against ACT. This time, it’s against ACT’s claim that: “Safe” New Zealand is now almost three times more violent than the US As usual, the ASCB invited ACT to substantiate its claim. It seems from the decision that […]
Wrong again
Monday, November 24th, 2008I think the Advertising Standards Complaints Board has screwed up again, this time upholding a complaint about ACT’s political advertising. Norightturn made this point first. The ads claimed that ACT was the only party opposed to the Emissions Trading Scheme. The Family Party complained that this was incorrect: it was opposed to the ETS, too. […]
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