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Tuesday, February 10th, 2026An overlooked part of Talley’s Group’s defamation case against TVNZ is its attempt to get TVNZ to disclose its confidential sources. It applied to court to make TVNZ give them up. This was a real test of our journalist source protection regime. In the two leading cases up to now, the courts had (effectively) refused […]
A note about data breaches
Monday, February 9th, 2026It’s becoming a regular thing to see hackers get hold of reams of private data and threaten to leak it. (See recently: Manage My Health and Neighbourly leaks. And in recent years: Commerce Commission and Te Whata Ora.) Courts readily grant injunctions to prevent the disclosure of such purloined information, usually on the basis of […]
On crooks and Labour voters
Friday, January 30th, 2026There’s a sort of maxim we talk about in defamation classes in law school. It illustrates a point, and it’s good for a chuckle. “It’s not defamatory to call a crook an honest person”. Because it’s only defamatory if it tends to lower you in the opinion of “right-thinking members of society generally,” see? Let’s […]
BSA bludgeons balance standard again
Tuesday, January 27th, 2026I have long been frustrated that the BSA seems to have defined the balance standard almost out of existence. Balance isn’t required because the thing you’re complaining about wasn’t the focus of the programme. Or the programme’s not controversial. Or the introduction makes it clear the audience is only getting one side. Or the issue […]
Reality Check Radio weighs in on BSA jurisdiction issue
Tuesday, January 27th, 2026The Broadcasting Standards Authority has given Reality Check Radio permission to make submissions on the question (raised by a complaint about The Platform) of whether the BSA has jurisdiction over online broadcasters. The BSA has also published a copy of its legal advice on the issue, which it sought last month. It concludes that the […]
The last word on Canadian alcohol guidelines
Tuesday, January 13th, 2026I’ve written to Dr Adam Shenk at the Canadian Centre for Substance and Addiction, which wrote the report containing new (two-drink) guidelines. He says that while Health Canada commissioned the guidelines, it has not posted them or endorsed them. He says that, while there’s no formal process for endorsing them, “the inference is that whichever […]
Talley’s defamation decision looks strange to me
Thursday, December 18th, 2025I read a lot of judgments, and particularly ones about media law. I have never felt more disconcerted than when I read this one. As you probably know, Talley’s sued TVNZ for defamation over a series of stories (and related online articles) from 2021. They mostly alleged health and safety violations. TVNZ defended it, and […]
Should I issue a correction?
Thursday, December 18th, 2025So now I’ve heard from Virginia Nicholl of the NZ Alcohol and Beverages Council. She says that the 2-drink guideline is not official Canadian government policy, and refers me to this link and Eric Crampton’s analysis here. This getting further into the weeds than I expected when I blogged about the overlap between the Media […]
Should the Media Council issue a retraction?
Wednesday, December 17th, 2025Well, this is interesting. After writing the post below, I was contacted by Andrew Galloway, the Executive Director of Alcohol Healthwatch. Guess what? He says the 2-drink guideline is in fact official Canadian policy. He refers to an email from a WHO-affiliated official who says the alcohol industry has been trying, unsuccessfully, to get the […]
Media regulation system breaking down?
Tuesday, December 16th, 2025It was bound to happen sooner or later. Complaints are being made to both the Media Council and the Broadcasting Standards Authority about basically the same stories. And they’re reaching different conclusions. How can this happen? Easily. Let’s say Radio NZ broadcasts a story or interview, then posts a text version of it, as it […]
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