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Name suppression

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The blogger and the journalist

Tuesday, October 28th, 2014

The Whale certainly created a splash in the last election. More accurately, it was investigative journalist Nicky Hager and his book Dirty Politics that created the splash. The Whale – controversial right-wing blogger Cameron Slater and his Whale Oil blog, whose emails were leaked to Mr Hager – copped most of the spray. (I should […]

Wha…?

Sunday, April 7th, 2013

I confess I’m entirely befuddled by the Dominion Post’s front-page lead on Saturday, “Prosecution for breaching paedophile’s rights”. Can someone help me out here? Isn’t the story conflating the Commission with the Office of Human Rights Proceedings, an independent office within the HRC? But why is the Office of Human Rights Proceedings bringing a “prosecution”? […]

We don’t need no stinking press regulation

Thursday, December 6th, 2012

The Herald’s lawyer, Alan Ringwood, argues that we don’t need any statutory press regulation in NZ. Don’t listen to Levenson, he says. We don’t need to go there. (Full article here). I guess it’s not a news flash that the Herald’s lawyer would oppose statutory restrictions on the Herald. But I’m interested in his argument. […]

Lawyer’s name suppression bid fails

Monday, February 13th, 2012

Criminal lawyer Barry Hart’s long attempt to have his name suppressed for his disciplinary tribunal charges has failed at the final hurdle, having also failed pretty much all the hurdles before that. The Supreme Court said: The likely particular impact of publicity on [the person applying for suppression] will always be relevant, but it is […]

Courts hold the line against name suppression!

Thursday, July 7th, 2011

The Supreme Court has just denied leave to appeal in a name suppression case. David Ingram Rowley and Barrie James Skinner have been charged with dishonest use of a document and perverting the course of justice. The trial is set for February next year. They were granted name suppression in the District Court. This was overturned in […]

Whale Oil loses his appeal

Wednesday, May 11th, 2011

Cameron Slater has lost his High Court appeal against his convictions for breaching a variety of name suppression orders, and against the penalties imposed (ie fines totalling $6750). Remarkably, none of the 16 king-hit arguments he boasted of has found favour with either of the judges who has considered his case.

How on earth did Hotchin get name suppression?

Thursday, April 21st, 2011

So this is what I’ve been wondering. Mark Hotchin, in 2003 a high flying businessman, director of New Zealand’s biggest private finance company, gets duped in a ponzi scam. He loses more than $200,000 of his own money. At the time, and since, there were thousands of investors who might have been interested in this […]

Devlin name-suppression beat-up

Tuesday, January 25th, 2011

Russell Brown has a terrific post demonstrating yet again the way the media have lost the plot about name suppression. He notes that no judge ever actually made a determination of the suppression application on the merits: an interim order was made by consent so that the application could be properly argued later. I suspect […]

Another media name suppression beat up

Saturday, December 18th, 2010

This article, headed “Porn accused gets name suppression” is in fact about a defendant who was denied permanent name suppression. An interim suppression order is due to lapse, but has been continued pending the defendant’s decision to appeal against the denial of permanent name suppression. (It’s obvious that this has to happen, otherwise the appeal […]

An unprivileged position?

Wednesday, September 15th, 2010

The DomPost seems to have deliberately breached a name suppression order. And now I probably have too, having merely linked to it. What the hey. The paper is reporting that ACT MP David Garrett has admitted that he obtained a false passport in his halcyon days, using the time-honoured Day-of-the-Jackel method of finding the tombstone […]

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