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 […]
We’re reporting their news, there
Friday, October 31st, 2008I’m following the US election closely, and I’m a Radio NZ listener, so you’d think I’d be applauding Radio NZ’s decision to send Geoff Robinson there to report the elections from the ground. But really, I’m wondering why they’ve spent the money. How many of Geoff’s interviews couldn’t have been done from here by phone? […]
White Knight
Friday, October 31st, 2008The Wellington City Council is requiring prior approval and bonds for the posting of political posters on council-owned poster bollards, and is apparently restricting their locations. Dean Knight rightly takes issue with this policy here and here.
Labour’s YouTube Boob 2
Thursday, October 30th, 2008I mentioned the Electoral Commission v Cameron case in the post below. The Court of Appeal granted judicial review against an Advertising Standards Authority decision upholding a complaint against the Electoral Commission. One of the grounds of that decision was that the ASA shouldn’t have used its own complaints jurisdiction to trespass on the Electoral […]
Labour’s YouTube Boob
Thursday, October 30th, 2008Did John Key say National would cut KiwiSaver in half? That’s what Labour said in their “John and John” ad. The ad was broadcast on TV and posted on YouTube. One S Davies-Colley thought was misleading, and complained about it. Under NZ’s increasingly creaky media law edifice, complaints about TV and radio election ads go to the Broadcasting Standards […]
Staying power?
Wednesday, October 29th, 2008I’ve said that the failure of the Fairfax contempt prosecution is a blow for the arms charge defendants’ chances of getting a stay of prosecution due to prejudicial publicity. If the case had succeeded, it would have been difficult for the presecutors and the courts to proceed with prosecutions. After all, two High Court judges […]
In case you missed it…
Wednesday, October 29th, 2008Here’s an op-ed piece I wrote for the DomPost. Full credit to the boys (rugby was the winner on the day) for publishing it, because it’s not entirely flattering. Before that, they commissioned an independent and thoughtful piece from Karl du Fresne. The paper’s trial coverage was also fair and balanced. Credit to Tim Pankhurst […]
Blow me down
Friday, October 10th, 2008I confess, I thought Fairfax and Tim Pankhurst were goners. But they have survived the contempt application for their “Terrorism Files” story mostly unscathed. I say “mostly” because the judges found that they should have been prosecuted for breaching suppression orders and the Crimes Act provision outlawing disclosure of intercepted communications. “We are at a loss to […]
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