A burning issue
Friday, July 25th, 2008I’m afraid my tirade about the ridiculousness of Valerie Morse’s conviction for burning a flag didn’t do any good. She lost her appeal to the High Court. Morse burned a flag at last year’s Anzac Day dawn parade at the Cenotaph in Wellington. She was gathered with other protestors in the university grounds over the road. She burned […]
Well, der.
Tuesday, July 22nd, 2008What was Radio NZ thinking? It tried to appeal against a BSA decision that had RNZ dead to rights. RNZ didn’t even argue in the High Court that it got its facts right – just that the BSA shouldn’t have ordered it to broadcast a correction. RNZ tried to argue that events had moved on, and that the correction would be […]
Fair enough?
Tuesday, July 22nd, 2008In Which Steven Writes Another Overly Long Post About A Controversial But Potentially Significant BSA Appeal, And Starts Off Disagreeing With The Judge, But Winds Up Coming Close To Changing His Mind, Perhaps Because She Cites His Article. Justice Mallon has overturned a Broadcasting Standards Authority decision that found a Close Up programme unfair (search for “Heather Green” here). I discussed the original decision here. To […]
T-shirty
Wednesday, July 2nd, 2008The Society for the Promotion of Community Standards was angered by this T-shirt (scroll down a bit). So they asked the censor to ban it. He did. You might be surprised that T-shirts can be censored. But they can, just like books, films, papers, billboards, or material on a website. Why did he ban it? […]
Access Denied
Saturday, June 28th, 2008Judge Patrick Treston has refused to allow the media access to video evidence in the assault case against police officers at Whakatane. He reportedly said the media coverage would probably be unfair and would “prejudice” the officers, who had been acquitted. Perhaps he was referring to ongoing employment issues and an Independent Police Conduct Authority investigation. […]
Book Review: Thomas’s muscular take on the project of judging
Friday, June 27th, 2008“The Judicial Process: Realism, Pragmatism, Practical Reasoning and Principles” By Justice E.W. Thomas Cambridge University Press Don’t be put off by the scholarly title. For anyone with an interest in judging, this is a readable and provocative critique of the way many judges go about their job. Justice Ted Thomas’s views about his craft are […]
Dopey complaints
Tuesday, June 24th, 2008Pity the Advertising Standards Complaints Board. Get a load of these complaints, all from its latest summary of decisions: The word “shitty” in a Burger Fuel poster was “offensive and socially irresponsible”. A newspaper ad for Waikato draught beer with the tagline “for a hardcase thirst” was said to contain “an unduly masculine theme”. A […]
Electoral Finance Act lawsuit tanks
Tuesday, June 24th, 2008Was the Crown Law Office vet that found that the Electoral Finance Bill wasn’t inconsistent with the Bill of Rights Act wrong? Should the Attorney-General have reported to Parliament that the bill was inconsistent with our rights to freedom of expression? Is the Electoral Finance Act itself inconsistent with the Bill of Rights Act? John […]
Suppression unsuppressed
Saturday, June 21st, 2008Just how much suppressing are the courts doing? In the past it’s been hard to tell, because statistics have been pretty patchy. But in an admirably prompt response to my request for some statistical information, the Ministry of Justice compiled some data for me from their records. Name suppression is the perennial hot issue. Is […]
Desperately seeking relief
Thursday, June 19th, 2008Readers will know I’m a generally fan of free speech. But I would support a ban on the use, by all politicians in every election year, of the word “desperate”.
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