A prediction about the Electoral Finance Act
Monday, January 14th, 2008I don’t want to say too much about the Electoral Finance Act. Some of you will know that I have been the spokesperson for the Coalition for Open Government, which generally supported the new law, arguing that it’s much better than the system we used to have, serves important democratic ends, and is much less […]
A potty Potter-right copyright case
Friday, January 11th, 2008Good grief. JK Rowling is joining the Idiot Copyright Lawsuit club, suing the folk who want to publish in book form the material on website the Harry Potter Lexicon. (She’s happy with the website). The book would be a sort of encyclopaedia of Potterworld. The sort of encyclopaedia, in fact, that she would like to write […]
What is this “Google” of which you speak?
Wednesday, January 9th, 2008The Listener’s cover story this week is headed: “Strike the best sites on the internet”. Boy, does it deliver. Apparently, there’s this thing called “Google” that allows you to search trillions of websites. And there are other “search engines”, too. The story even mentions one. And that’s not all. Who knew that the Guardian and the New York Times had websites – that you […]
Did the Minister of Commerce defame Green Acres?
Tuesday, January 8th, 2008On Summer Report this morning, the chief executive of ironing franchise Green Acres accused Commerce Minister Lianne Dalziel of defaming his company. He said she told a bunch of scammed investors that Green Acres was under investigation by the Serious Fraud Office. In fact, he said, it was the fraudulent franchisee who was under investigation, […]
Scott Watson battle in media
Sunday, January 6th, 2008Keith Hunter thinks he’s not guilty, and has produced a documentary and book about it. North & South and the Herald on Sunday are weighing in on Watson’s side. Meanwhile, the Listener is weighing in for the prosecution, with a cover story featuring interviews with prosecutor Paul Davison QC and Deputy Police Commissioner Rob Pope. Despite the spate […]
Solicitor-General to prosecute Fairfax for contempt
Friday, December 21st, 2007The DomPost is reporting that the papers that ran the “terrorism files” story are to be prosecuted for contempt. The S-G has also set his sights on DomPost editor Tim Pankhurst, but not the editors of the Press or the Waikato Times. The essence of the allegation is that the stories will interfere with the […]
Editors and name suppression
Wednesday, December 19th, 2007Are editors liable if their publications breach name suppression? Not if they didn’t read the story, and it was reasonable for them not to, according to a British case. The story identified the victim of a sex offence. But the editor said he hadn’t read it. It was on page 35, and the editor had been […]
Has John Edwards ripped off Coldplay’s “Clocks” too?
Friday, December 14th, 2007Have a gander at this. Has US Presidential candidate John Edwards breached Coldplay’s copyright like John Key did? Or has his production team done just enough to tweak the track?
Journalist sacked for swearing at boss
Friday, December 14th, 2007The Employment Relations Authority has upheld the Press’s sacking of sports journalist John Coffey. Sports editor Coen Lammers had added in some words to one of his cricket stories. The words were “New Zealand’s youngest in a decade”. In fact, the phrase should have been “New Zealand’s youngest in over half a century”. When he […]
Christians vs South Park: the sequel
Friday, December 14th, 2007And I’m afraid it’s 2-0 to South Park. The BSA has once again refused to uphold a complaint against a sacreligious South Park show. In the episode complained about, a cut-out picture of Jesus says to George Bush “Look at me, I’m Jesus. Would you like me to crap on you Mr Bush?”, and then […]
« Previous Entries Next Entries »