NZ and Aussie Press Councils to co-host public forum
Tuesday, February 26th, 2008It’s called “The Press and the Right to Know Under Seige”, and will feature a key-note address from Media Law Guru John Burrows QC, and presentations from the chairs of the NZ and Australian Press Councils, Barry Paterson QC and Prof Ken McKinnon respectively. It will be chaired by Justice Randerson. It will be held […]
Police raid TV3
Friday, February 22nd, 2008It’s being reported that police are executing a search warrant in TV3’s premises. As I’ve noted, given the case law, I’m not surprised that the police were able to obtain a warrant. An important factor for a judge in deciding whether to grant the warrant is the cogency of the evidence. Here it seems likely that TV3 have information about the identity of a confessed criminal. (NB […]
“Confusing” is right
Friday, February 22nd, 2008Deborah Hill Cone opines that the Advertising Standards Complaints Board decision about the Charlies ad is “confusing”. So’s her column. She says the decision, upholding the complaint about the ad, is confusing because much more graphic non-cartoony stuff is shown on telly, such as Californication. Then she says that the ads have commercial motives, and that this is a reason […]
BSA finds TV screwed up coverage of Electoral Finance Bill
Friday, February 22nd, 2008I brought these complaints, together with the Coalition for Open Government. The BSA has found TV3’s and TVNZ’s coverage of the Electoral Finance Bill, when it was first revealed to the public, contained significant inaccuracies. These complaints related only to this early coverage, though I think we could have complained about other coverage, too. COG thought […]
Medaling with justice?
Friday, February 22nd, 2008No doubt you’ve heard that John Campbell interviewed a guy he said was one of the War museum medal thieves. He said TV3 had made only one promise: not to reveal his identity. (Except for the other promise, which was not to ask him about the reward money, though Campbell reported that the man said he […]
Bloggers flout copyright
Wednesday, February 20th, 2008I’m not a copyright Nazi. I think copyright laws could stand to be loosened. This is just an observation: some bloggers routinely breach other people’s copyright by posting large chunks of stories, columns and editorials. Where they exceed a reasonable extract for fair dealing purposes, these posts are infringing copies. But where they can be […]
Case exposes vulnerable underbelly of contempt laws
Friday, February 15th, 2008An Australian judge has banned the broadcast of a TV series about the mafia in Victoria (it can be broadcast elsewhere in Australia) because it may prejudice upcoming mafia trials. Of course, people have recorded it and put it online, and now anyone in Victoria who wants to is downloading and watching it. Some media may […]
Crimes in the public interest
Thursday, February 14th, 2008A quick note on recent stouch about the journalist who took a knife and toy gun on a regional flight to demonstrate lax security. (Bonus gossip: it was Jonathan Marshall, who was behind a hideously intrusive celebrity expose website, but has since taken a journalism course and is doing serious work). I say: give that man […]
NZLS media law seminar
Thursday, February 14th, 2008TVNZ lawyer Willy Akel, Fairfax lawyer Robert Stewart and I are presenting a law society seminar on media law in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch in April. Sign up now! Watch Willy and I slug it out over the laws of privacy and qualified privilege! He’s bigger than I am, but I’m nippy. Actually, it will mostly be […]
Osmose part-settled
Thursday, February 14th, 2008You might remember that the Osmose defamation case in the High Court appeared to revolutionise the defence of qualified privilege: opening it up to all stories about matters of public interest, not just those about politicians, and making it easier for journalists to show they’d acted responsibly (a condition of the defence). The case was […]
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