Broadcasting Standards Authority
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Thursday, January 22nd, 2009In this extraordinary decision, issued this month, the BSA has effectively re-written the Broadcasting Act and exempted talkback radio from the balance standard. It also seems to largely give talkback shows a pass when it comes to fairness complaints. The BSA had already established a rule that talkback hosts could be inaccurate pretty much whenever […]
Labour’s YouTube Boob 2
Thursday, October 30th, 2008I mentioned the Electoral Commission v Cameron case in the post below. The Court of Appeal granted judicial review against an Advertising Standards Authority decision upholding a complaint against the Electoral Commission. One of the grounds of that decision was that the ASA shouldn’t have used its own complaints jurisdiction to trespass on the Electoral […]
TV3 wrong about gong
Friday, October 3rd, 2008TV3 misled viewers when it broadcast its Campbell Live interview with an actor playing one of the Waiuru Army Museum medal thieves, the BSA has ruled. Viewers were only told that the voice was that of an actor, and might well have thought the person they were seeing was one of the real thieves. After […]
Free advice for the Greens:
Tuesday, September 30th, 2008Ditch the idea of taking a broadcasting standards complaint about TV3’s decision to pull the leaders’ debate after the Clark/Key walkout. For one thing, you can’t complain about a programme before it’s been broadcast. For another, you have to complain to the broadcaster first, and, as this isn’t a complaint about an “election programme” (see […]
BSA election ad complaint system
Thursday, September 25th, 2008I wonder whether the BSA’s fast-track election-ad complaint system will get a decent work-out this year. The system allows you to complain straight to the BSA about “election programmes”. This really means broadcast election advertisements, including opening and closing addresses, rather than, for example, election debates. (Bonus question: was the televised press conference at which the […]
Target under fire
Wednesday, July 30th, 2008A few years ago, I did a report for RNZ’s MediaWatch programme, raising questions about whether the hidden camera stings in TV3’s Target programme were complying with broadcasting standards and the law of trespass. Over the years, Target has survived a string of broadcasting standards complaints. The producers deserve some credit. They always take care to try to […]
Okay, so does Mosley affect NZ law?
Monday, July 28th, 2008Quite a bit, potentially. Remember, there was no claim in defamation (Mosley now says he’ll bring a separate lawsuit for that). And Mosley had failed in his injunction bid because the cat was out of the bag – the pictures were in the public domain. Remember, too, that the framework of the law in the […]
Well, der.
Tuesday, July 22nd, 2008What was Radio NZ thinking? It tried to appeal against a BSA decision that had RNZ dead to rights. RNZ didn’t even argue in the High Court that it got its facts right – just that the BSA shouldn’t have ordered it to broadcast a correction. RNZ tried to argue that events had moved on, and that the correction would be […]
Fair enough?
Tuesday, July 22nd, 2008In Which Steven Writes Another Overly Long Post About A Controversial But Potentially Significant BSA Appeal, And Starts Off Disagreeing With The Judge, But Winds Up Coming Close To Changing His Mind, Perhaps Because She Cites His Article. Justice Mallon has overturned a Broadcasting Standards Authority decision that found a Close Up programme unfair (search for “Heather Green” here). I discussed the original decision here. To […]
Regulating broadcasting content
Monday, May 26th, 2008You may know that the government is having a big think about what to do about the patchwork of increasingly moth-eaten laws and regimes that govern broadcasting content. It has produced discussion papers and invited feedback. The submissions are here. More on this soon.
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