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Chasing Ali

Monday, February 15th, 2010

The latest development in the Alison Mau saga reads like a media law exam question. On Breakfast TV she took a swipe at Woman’s Day, saying its “paparazzi photographer has been stalking me, my children and my friends for a month now, quite possibly more, following me to the supermarket, the kids’ tennis and touch […]

TVNZ upholds Paul Henry complaint

Monday, December 21st, 2009

TVNZ’s complaints committee has found that Paul Henry breached the taste and decency standard with his comments on Susan Boyle on Breakfast last month. He giggled when reporting that she had been starved of oxygen at birth and said she was “retarded” and you could see it from her photograph. It’s worse when you see […]

Bad English

Thursday, October 29th, 2009

Let me get this straight: TVNZ7 scripted this ad? What were they thinking? I must say, my first response was the same as Graeme Edgeler’s: this might be an “election programme” under the Broadcasting Act. It’s an offence to broadcast a promo that “advocates support for a candidate or for a political party”. Interestingly, the […]

Let Us Stray (from the facts)

Wednesday, August 19th, 2009

Sigh. Let Us Spray producer Keith Slater has given an interview on MediaWatch, defending the documentary Let Us Spray after the BSA upheld complaints against it. Well, that’s his right. And plainly, he still thinks the documentary was right. But he’s still making statements that strike me as just as misleading as the programme was. […]

BSA upholds complaint against Qantas-award-winning doco

Monday, August 10th, 2009

The Broadcasting Standards Authority has concluded that Let Us Spray, TV3’s “year-long investigation” into the effects of dioxin on the residents of Paritutu, was seriously unbalanced and unfair. It has also found that two associated TV3 news stories were unfair, unbalanced and inaccurate. The complainants were the Ministry of Health, which was accused of covering up and […]

Laws unto himself

Tuesday, July 7th, 2009

Michael Laws has been potted by the Broadcasting Standards Authority again, this time for a tirade against two fire service spokespeople, who had warned the public about the dangers of leaving chips unattended in a frying pan and not having working smoke alarms. This was after a fatal fire, killing four children, had been caused […]

New BSA member

Monday, June 29th, 2009

Mary Anne Shanahan has been appointed to replace Diane Musgrave at the BSA. She is a lawyer, but is not being appointed chair (that’s still Jo Morris): she has been appointed to the “community rep” position. (One of the four members is appointed after consultation with broadcasters, and one after consultation with “public interest groups […]

How I think the Bill of Rights is supposed to work

Sunday, June 28th, 2009

I’ve mentioned an article I wrote with Claudia Geiringer about the Bill of Rights Act for Law, Liberty and Legislation – Essays in Honour of John Burrows QC. It’s called “Moving from Self-Justication to Demonstrable Justification – the Bill of Rights and the Broadcasting Standards Authority”. It has already been cited favourably in a couple […]

New draft broadcasting code for TV

Monday, March 9th, 2009

The BSA has released a new draft of the free-to-air TV code for public consultation. The proposed changes are conveniently set out alongside the existing provisions. The changes that leap out at me: 1. Balance is renamed “Controversial issues – viewpoints”. But the substance remains the same (it has to: it’s in the Broadcasting Act). […]

Chris not Christians

Thursday, February 19th, 2009

I’m not a Christian. I think the Biblical creation story is daft. I don’t think it should be taught in schools. But I do think that when a serious radio programme debates the issue “Should creation be taught in schools?” the station should at least find someone who thinks it should to include in the […]

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