Media ethics
« Previous EntriesRooney tunes
Monday, September 6th, 2010The ever-excellent Inforrm blog fillets the UK tabloid media for their expose of footballer Wayne Rooney’s affair. It’s plainly private… so what was that public interest justification again?
Sunday paper lies to boost circulation!
Tuesday, June 22nd, 2010Here’s the Sunday Star-Times headline from last week:
Sex attack gets drunk driver off
This is almost true. To be precisely accurate, however, it should have read:
Sex attack doesn’t get drunk driver off
The story is about a woman who was convicted of drunk-driving in the middle of the night after she said she was fleeing from someone […]
Laws confused about laws
Monday, April 26th, 2010For someone who is readily outraged by news stories that contain falsehoods about him, Michael Laws certainly doesn’t display the same regard for accuracy in his own journalism.
In the Sunday Star-Times yesterday, he railed against the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People, arguing that it is likely to be a potent legal force for […]
Flogging content
Monday, April 26th, 2010RNZ’s Mediawatch this week looked at the ethics of the media’s practice of drawing content, including pictures, from social networking sites. Host Colin Peacock mentioned a Herald on Sunday article that pulled material from a car accident victim’s Facebook site, including a photo of him, adding:
Like many people using the social networking websites these days, […]
PN suppression: missed angle?
Wednesday, February 17th, 2010Take a gander at this extraordinary passage from the sentencing notes: the judge described the sentencing outcomes in objectionable publications cases as “all over the place with no apparent consistency at all”.
Sounds like a news story to me.
PN Name suppression decision considered
Wednesday, February 17th, 2010I think the decision is wrong, but I can sympathise with the judge. He cites R v Wilson & Horton (the American billionaire case) but not the other leading case of R v Liddell, where it was held that:
[name suppression orders] are never to be imposed lightly, and in cases of conviction for serious crime […]
What can Crown lawyers say to the media?
Wednesday, February 10th, 2010The Crown Law Office has put out a very sensible, but rather general, protocol containing guidance for prosecutors when dealing with media inquiries.
It doesn’t mention civil proceedings, but it does apply to the Crown Law Office itself, and the general principles at the beginning seem broad enough to cover civil cases too.
It makes no […]
“Comedian” child sex accused name suppression
Monday, December 21st, 2009It seems that a “comedian” has been granted name suppression in connection with charges that he has had unlawful sexual connection with a child under 12, his daughter.
This isn’t some namby-pamby judge covering up for a celebrity. This suppression kicks in automatically under the Criminal Justice Act, I think. Alleged sex crime victims are given name suppression under […]
Perhaps he was deprived of oxygen at birth
Monday, November 30th, 2009Here’s the really interesting thing about Stuff’s story about Paul Henry’s comments on Susan Boyle. They’re using a photo that makes Henry appear a bit retarded himself.
If you look at him carefully, you can make it out.
Fact Suppression
Sunday, November 29th, 2009Which is worse: our name suppression laws, or the media’s coverage of them?
Today, the Sunday Star-Times leads with a story headlined “Identity of high profile drug accused kept secret”.
The story is about a familiar one: public figure gets name suppression; cue outrage.
Never mind that this particular defendant’s name was not suppressed between her arrest in […]