I am not a bully, says Nick Smith. And if you call me one, I’ll sue you.
Monday, July 28th, 2014Conservation Minister Nick Smith is being accused of political interference for trying to discourage NZ Fish and Game from publicly advocating for cleaner lakes and rivers. Now he’s threatening to sue those who made the claim. Now, I don’t know what happened at the meeting, and it’s clear there are different recollections of exactly what […]
Throwing the book at the Chief Judge II
Thursday, July 10th, 2014Former Privacy Commissioner Bruce Slane also criticises the High Court order requiring Kim Dotcom to seek documents from author David Fisher under the Privacy Act so that he can turn them over to the Crown. But he takes a different tack to mine. He argues (very persuasively, I think) that these documents are not really under […]
Throwing the book at the Chief Judge
Thursday, July 3rd, 2014News media activities are exempt from the strictures of the Privacy Act, which generally requires that people gather information directly from those concerned, explain what they’ll do with it, keep and securely, and don’t use or disclose it for unauthorised purposes. The Privacy Act also allows those affected to access information about them, and seek to correct […]
Law Commission on contempt
Friday, May 23rd, 2014The Law Commission has released its discussion paper on contempt of court. It covers changes to the sub judice rule (under which you can be punished for publishing something that interferes with fair trial rights), scandalising the judicary (under which you can be punished for suggesting judges are biased or corrupt), contempt in the face […]
Taurima Report
Wednesday, May 14th, 2014As many of you know, I was on the panel for the TVNZ inquiry into Labour Party activities at TVNZ by Shane Taurima and other TVNZ staff members. Other panel members were TVNZ’s Head of Corporate and Legal Affairs Brent McAnulty and CEO of the Radio Broadcasters Association Bill Francis, and we were ably assisted […]
Press Council to tackle bloggers
Wednesday, May 14th, 2014This is my column for the first edition of the NewLaw magazine. The Press Council wants to spread its wings. It has decided to fly farther afield, casting its eagle eye over new terrains on the internet, including bloggers. Will the online community welcome the attentions of this defender of speech and guardian of journalistic […]
The news according to Mike Hosking
Thursday, April 3rd, 2014I was watching Seven Sharp on Tuesday, and caught Mike Hosking’s closing monologue: Bad news. I’m afraid the IPCC – the International Panel on Climate Change – has issued its latest report. It’s 2,600 pages long and spans 32 volumes. But I can sum it up for you. Ah, we’re stuffed. The seas are rising, […]
Post at your own risk!
Thursday, February 13th, 2014An interesting warning from the Northern Ireland High Court: Before I go on … I should say that anyone who uses Facebook does so at his or her peril. There is no guarantee that any comments posted to be viewed by friends will only be seen by those friends. Furthermore it is difficult to see […]
Harmful Digital Communications Bill submission
Tuesday, February 11th, 2014Introduction I am a barrister specialising in media law and a lecturer in media and privacy law at Victoria University of Wellington’s law school. I am also a blogger and occasional journalist. I am the author of a textbook for journalists called “Media Minefield”. I have dealt with, studied, and commented on many cases involving […]
Constitution, reviewed
Thursday, December 5th, 2013To all those people who insistend that the government’s constitutional consideration was a stalking horse for formally entrenching the Treaty of Waitangi and racial bias into our constitution: time to start wiping the egg off your face. I’m looking at you, Chris Trotter and Winston Peters and John Ansell and the folk at the Independent Constitutional Review. […]
« Previous Entries Next Entries »