General
« Previous EntriesA few notes on the OIA scandal
Wednesday, September 23rd, 2026A Ministry of Education official has been caught on video telling staff not to write down their feedback from the Minister’s office because it is “OIA-able”. It’s not good. It looks like an attempt to create a misleading impression that feedback on a draft curriculum didn’t come from the Minister’s office. It may be a […]
Stuff gagged – wrongly?
Friday, September 18th, 2026The High Court has granted an injunction against Stuff Ltd preventing it publishing a report into potential conflicts of interest at a law firm receiving legal aid money. It seems the law firm was referring work to a firm that produced cultural and alcohol and drug reports for court. That firm was owned by two […]
Interesting Media Council splits
Friday, September 18th, 2026The Media Council (formerly the Press Council) hears complaints against print or text based media, alleging unethical conduct such as inaccuracy or lack of fairness or balance, or invasion of privacy. The complaints board comprises a combination of journalist and non-journalists picked to represent the public and is usually chaired by a retired judge (currently […]
BSA cop out?
Thursday, September 3rd, 2026I’ve just accused (below) the Advertising Standards Authority of copping out by refusing to uphold a complaint by finding that an assertion of fact is a statement of opinion. I think the BSA sometimes does the same thing. But at least it argues it out. It recently rejected a complaint against Mike’s Minute. Hosking was […]
ASA cops out again
Thursday, September 3rd, 2026Looks like the Advertising Standards Authority is doing its usual thing in letting political parties get away with blatantly misleading ads by pretending that they are opinions. It’s a bit difficult to tell, because the ASA’s website’s new display format provides so little information about the complaint, the ad complained about, or the ASA’s reasoning. […]
De-Platformed
Thursday, August 20th, 2026The BSA has upheld the complaint against Sean Plunket’s internet broadcasting outfit, The Platform. (Of course, the bigger issue here is whether they had jurisdiction at all, but I’ve covered that elsewhere). I had confidently predicted they wouldn’t uphold the complaint. I think they shouldn’t have. The facts: Plunket was discussing Fire and Emergency NZ’s […]
Is the Media Council’s legal waiver requirement lawful?
Tuesday, May 26th, 2026The waiver The rationale “The purpose of the waiver is to ensure that a complaint to the NZ Media Council is the only form of formal action that will be taken in relation to the article that is the subject of the complaint. The NZ Media Council provides the public access to a free, quick […]
BSA PS
Thursday, May 7th, 2026Just a reminder of what’s at stake here. As I wrote earlier this year: If The Platform and any other internet-based TV or radio platform are not subject to the Broadcasting Act, then they are not subject to broadcasting standards, and could do the following things: These are all based on real cases. In most […]
BSA to go
Wednesday, May 6th, 2026So the government has decided to abolish the BSA. Various people are crowing about it. They are pointing to the BSA’s decision to hear a complaint against internet broadcaster The Platform. ACT says this was an attempt to “police the internet… to stretch a law written for rabbit-ear TVs over podcasts and livestreams”. It’s hard […]
Attempt to de-Platform the BSA fails
Wednesday, April 1st, 2026The BSA has ruled that it has jurisdiction to receive complaints against the online media company, The Platform. “Using an unduly technical interpretation to exclude online broadcasters would create a significant gap in the protections available to New Zealanders”, it wrote. “We consider the standards regime logically, and appropriately, includes online broadcasters such as The […]
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