Fact-checkNg
Monday, March 3rd, 2008A welcome new addition to the NZ Herald: Keith Ng’s new column “Just the facts”, which seeks to ferret out the truth behind factual and statistical claims made by politicians (… and the media?). I think we need more of this kind of journalism. Keith Ng, you may remember, famously exposed the misuse of statistics […]
Falun Going Going Gong?
Monday, March 3rd, 2008Can the Wellington City Council ban Falun Gong’s signs from the Botannical Gardens? In a typically thoughtful and comprehensive post, Dean Knight concludes: nope, unless they’re attached to structures. He also notes that there’s no rule as such against political signs. It seems from today’s DomPost (offline) that the council might be softening its attitude. […]
Your news leader
Friday, February 29th, 2008I’ve just come back from the injunction hearing. The application has been adjourned for 7 days to allow the defendants to look at the documentation (which they’ve only just received) and work out what position to adopt. This is pretty standard. The injunctions are continued in the meantime. There are two sets of proceedings: one […]
Illegal exclusion of media?
Friday, February 29th, 2008Yesterday, Justice Panckhurst closed the court to the media in a preliminary hearing on the Bain case. He is reported as saying that discussions were sensitive and could have implications for a fair trial. But these are not grounds for excluding the media. Check out section 138 of the Criminal Justice Act: 138 Power to […]
Media gagged on Health Board report
Friday, February 29th, 2008The Director-General of Health has won an injunction preventing media publication of a draft report into the conflict of interest at the Hawke’s Bay District Health Board. The Herald is reporting that the court order also requires the media to deliver up any copies they may hold. The Dominion Post reports: But last night the Crown […]
Ad strategy: attract complaints?
Wednesday, February 27th, 2008Surely Hell Pizza is trying to make its ads offensive so that it can attract extra publicity by having complaints against them upheld. How else to explain its direct mail ad that says: Hell Spicy BBQ Pork Spare Ribs are by all accounts a lot like having sex with Jenny Shipley – messy but good. […]
Something to get depressed about
Wednesday, February 27th, 2008The coverage of the story about the effectiveness of anti-depressants. Russell Brown provides some context. Russell also had to clean up the mess 60 Minutes made of the Herceptin story. And who can forget TVNZ’s leap onto the miracle cancer-cure lyprinol bandwagon? I mean, really, can’t we expect the paid journalists to do this work before […]
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 […]
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