NZ Bill of Rights Act
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Thursday, February 19th, 2009The Law Commmission has put out an issues paper on suppressing names and evidence. They’re seeking input, but you’d better be quick. The paper sets out the various ways names and evidence can be suppressed, and asks whether reform is needed. In general, they’re looking at recommending that the grounds on which suppression can be granted […]
Boscawen appeal fails
Tuesday, February 17th, 2009The Court of Appeal has thrown out the Bill of Rights challenge to the Electoral Finance Act. That’s not to say that they thought the EFA was consistent with the BORA. Just that they wouldn’t consider the issue. I’m not too surprised that they threw out the challenge to the Attorney-General’s decision not to report […]
Children’s privacy marches on in ECHR
Tuesday, February 17th, 2009The European Court of Human Rights has gone much further than NZ’s Hosking case in protecting children’s privacy. Parents of a newborn baby snapped by a private clinic in its sterile unit successfully argued that the taking (and keeping) of the photos (even without publication) without parental consent breached the child’s right to private life. This […]
Talkback officially a balance-free zone
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 […]
Street-illegal
Tuesday, December 9th, 2008Here’s some free advice to any busker accused of falling foul of Auckland City Council’s extraordinary new policy on street theatre requiring buskers to have a sufficient repertoire of songs to last out their performance (maximum playing time: one hour) without repetition: 1. thank the authorised officer kindly, 2. apologise for the breach of the […]
Right!
Monday, November 24th, 2008And here’s a political ad complaint I think the Advertising Standards Complaint Board got right. Again, it’s against ACT. This time, it’s against ACT’s claim that: “Safe” New Zealand is now almost three times more violent than the US As usual, the ASCB invited ACT to substantiate its claim. It seems from the decision that […]
Wrong again
Monday, November 24th, 2008I think the Advertising Standards Complaints Board has screwed up again, this time upholding a complaint about ACT’s political advertising. Norightturn made this point first. The ads claimed that ACT was the only party opposed to the Emissions Trading Scheme. The Family Party complained that this was incorrect: it was opposed to the ETS, too. […]
Wrong
Friday, November 7th, 2008The Advertising Standards Complaints Appeal Board has upheld the decision against Labour’s YouTube ad – the one that criticised National’s plan to cut Kiwisaver in half. (The appeal board’s decision is below the complaints board’s one, so you’ll have to scroll down). How bad is the decision? Let me count the ways. First, it decided […]
CA to rule on right to jury in contempt cases
Monday, November 3rd, 2008The Bill of Rights Act says we have the right to a trial by jury if the penalty for an offence exceeds 3 months jail. The maximum penalty for contempt is indefinite imprisonment. Recently, Vince Siemer was sentenced to 6 months in jail. He asked for a jury trial. It was denied. Why? The Courts […]
Copywrongs
Monday, November 3rd, 2008How ironic that ACT violated the Greens’ intellectual property rights by pinching their cute-kid photo. So much for the law-and-order party. Still, I think this points up a gap in our law. Spoofs like this should be fair game, I think. The US has a fairly strong parody defence to copyright infringements. Australia has followed […]
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