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« Previous EntriesIs 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 […]
Batchelor losing party
Wednesday, March 25th, 2026Julian Batchelor has lost his defamation lawsuit against TVNZ and former Disinformation Project director of research Dr Sanjana Hattotuwa. They’d accused him in an online article of racist rhetoric, inciting hate and real-world harm. Batchelor says this struck at his character and integrity, and that he didn’t believe or claim that Maaori are racially inferior. […]
Talley’s source of contention
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 […]
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