Broadcasting Standards issue
Friday, October 3rd, 2014I wonder when the Broadcasting Standards Authority are going to tell us that one of the BSA board members quit a couple of weeks ago. That hasn’t come out yet, has it? A member of the BSA has up and walked. They haven’t mentioned that one yet, have they? (Some might say that I have just made […]
Web hosts’ defamation liability restricted
Friday, September 19th, 2014In a significant Court of Appeal decision (see Murray v Wishart), hot off the press, the judges have unanimously ruled that a third party publisher (the owner of a Facebook page that contained comments by others) was not liable for other people’s comments simply because he “ought to have known” that they contain defamatory material […]
Some questions for the PM
Monday, September 15th, 2014I’m struggling to find the provisions in NZ’s policy about the classification of documents that allow the PM to declassify documents for the purpose of protecting his reputation (his word, not mine, on Morning Report this morning). Perhaps the PM could help me out here. The PM has said he would declassify documents to prove […]
Is Whale Oil a journalist (3)?
Sunday, September 14th, 2014Yes. Yes, he is. The High Court says so, as Whale Oil points out triumphantly. Like the good journalist he is, he even shows us the evidence: para 145 of Justice Asher’s judgment. Mr Slater then goes on to demonstrate his journalistic chops by entirely failing to report the rest of the judgment. That includes […]
Is Whale Oil a journalist (2)?
Friday, August 22nd, 2014Some time ago, I wrote about Cameron Slater’s claim to be a journalist, which he is invoking for the purposes of protecting his confidential sources. The District Court ordered him to turn over his sources in a defamation case brought against him by Matt Blomfield. The court said Slater didn’t qualify for source protection under […]
Did Nicky Hager “make stuff up”?
Monday, August 18th, 2014As many of you know, I act for Nicky Hager. I vetted his book, Dirty Politics, and the three before that. It is a surreal experience watching what happens to Nicky’s books in the days after their publication. It often seems as if the book that’s being discussed by politicians and in the media is […]
New book by Nicky Hager
Monday, August 11th, 2014For those who haven’t heard, Nicky Hager has a new book coming out this week. It will be launched at Unity Books (57 Willis St) at 5pm on Wednesday. Nicky and others will start speaking at 5:15pm and the book will be made available for sale after that. All are welcome to attend.
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 […]
« Previous Entries Next Entries »