Siemer strikes out again
Thursday, November 20th, 2008The Supreme Court has refused leave to Vincent Siemer over a range of complaints he had with procedural rulings in the defamation case brought against him by Michael Stiassny. As part of the decision, the court ruled that Stiassny’s reference to Court of Appeal judge Grant Hammond as “our old mate” was not evidence of […]
British Parliamentary inquiry into press standards following string of defamation cases
Thursday, November 20th, 2008A British Parliamentary committee is to conduct an inquiry into British press standards, and will be asking whether the self-regulatory system needs toughening up. It has been sparked by the media’s coverage (resulting in several successful defamation claims for their false accusations) of the disappearance of three-year-old Madeleine McCann in Portugal last year.
Daily Mail editor strikes blow for the public right to know celebrities’ sexual habits
Thursday, November 13th, 2008In a speech to the Society of Editors conference, Daily Mail editor Paul Dacre called Justice David Eady “amoral and arrogant” and panned his pro-privacy decisions. He argued that Justice Eady was stopping the press from exposing the immoral conduct of public figures. He said this like it was a bad thing. The sort of […]
Page views, not site-hits, needed for defamation claim
Monday, November 10th, 2008Want to sue someone for defamation for something posted online? You’ll need better evidence than the number of people who visited the website, according to the British High Court. The courts won’t assume that visitors to the website will have hunted out the material you’re suing about (unless it’s high up on the home page, […]
Wrong
Friday, November 7th, 2008The Advertising Standards Complaints Appeal Board has upheld the decision against Labour’s YouTube ad – the one that criticised National’s plan to cut Kiwisaver in half. (The appeal board’s decision is below the complaints board’s one, so you’ll have to scroll down). How bad is the decision? Let me count the ways. First, it decided […]
So that’s all right then
Wednesday, November 5th, 2008The Daily Mail has just joined the Sun and the Daily Star in apologising to (and paying defamation damages to) Italian footballer Marco Materazzi for falsely accusing him of racially abusing Zinedine Zidane, triggering the famous headbutt in the 2006 World Cup final. The paper reported that he called Zidane “the son of a terrorist whore”. […]
NSW moves to stop judgments prejudicing trials
Tuesday, November 4th, 2008New South Wales is taking steps to take judgments offline where they might affect a jury because they contain prejudicial details. One of the parties has to make an application though. (Hat tip: Ursula Cheer).
CA to rule on right to jury in contempt cases
Monday, November 3rd, 2008The Bill of Rights Act says we have the right to a trial by jury if the penalty for an offence exceeds 3 months jail. The maximum penalty for contempt is indefinite imprisonment. Recently, Vince Siemer was sentenced to 6 months in jail. He asked for a jury trial. It was denied. Why? The Courts […]
Copywrongs
Monday, November 3rd, 2008How ironic that ACT violated the Greens’ intellectual property rights by pinching their cute-kid photo. So much for the law-and-order party. Still, I think this points up a gap in our law. Spoofs like this should be fair game, I think. The US has a fairly strong parody defence to copyright infringements. Australia has followed […]
Overcharged?
Monday, November 3rd, 2008It was always possible that further charges were to be laid against some of the Urewera defendants, and here they are: participation in an organised criminal group. Must say, though, I feel some disquiet about the adding of these broad-based charges (as opposed to the more specific Arms Act ones) after the High Court has […]
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