Protest speech
« Previous EntriesStormin’ Norman 2
Wednesday, June 23rd, 2010Okay, I’ve watched the footage. I think there’s plainly an assault (probably several). They’re plainly minor. The Chinese security detail were plainly desperate to spare their guy from the indignity of having to look at the Tibetan flag. They try to stand in front of Norman, and one pushes an umbrella in front of his […]
Offensive language
Monday, June 21st, 2010“Of course we have freedom of speech in New Zealand, but that doesn’t mean we have to use that freedom of speech to cause offence to people, particularly to overseas visitors.”
– Murray McCully, criticising Greens leader Russel Norman for his protest against Chinese human rights abuses in Tibet.
“Freedom to speech inoffensively isn’t worth having.”
– Sir […]
Morse wins right to appeal flag-burning conviction
Tuesday, May 18th, 2010Yay! Tony Shaw, Felix Geiringer and I have been granted leave by Supreme Court to argue that Valerie Morse should not have been convicted of offensive behaviour for burning a flag at an Anzac Day ceremony. Along the way, hopefully we’ll be able to sort out how the Bill of Rights applies to open-textured criminal […]
Burning for reform
Thursday, March 25th, 2010Are republicans the only people in NZ who can commit the offence of flag-burning by burning a flag?
You might remember that Paul Hopkinson had his conviction for flag-burning overturned in the High Court, because Justice Ellen France held that the offence needed to be interpreted narrowly to provide space for free speech rights under the […]
Bare reasoning
Friday, March 12th, 2010In Lowe v New Zealand Police, Clifford J rightly overturns Nick Lowe’s conviction for offensive behaviour for cycling in the nude. It was on World Nude Bike Day, but Mr Lowe, “a committed cyclist and naturist”, doesn’t need that incentive to bike about naked. For example, he competes in the Coast to Coast without clothes […]
Crashing and burning
Thursday, January 21st, 2010Valerie Morse has lost her appeal to the Court of Appeal over her conviction for flag-burning at the Anzac Day Dawn Service. (For some reason, this wasn’t regarded as a “decision of public interest”, but it’s posted here).
The judges all wrote separate judgments. Justice Arnold and the President of the Court of Appeal, William Young, […]
Wrong turn by bus campaigners
Sunday, November 22nd, 2009You know what appals me most about the save-Manners-mall-from-buses campaign’s decision to hire students to front up for a protest march?
It’s not the sheer stupidity of the tactic, which was surely always likely to bite them in the bum. It’s not that they’ve completely undone their own cause, illustrating how little support they can […]
Sparking debate
Monday, August 10th, 2009I’ll be in the Court of Appeal with Tony Shaw tomorrow trying to make the world safe for flag-burners. Specifically: Valerie Morse, who lit a flag over the road from the Anzac Day dawn service at Wellington’s Cenotaph in 2007 to protest our militaristic foreign policy. She’s been convicted of offensive behaviour. Is this a […]
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 new code […]
It’s censorship, John, but not as we know it
Friday, August 15th, 2008Poor John Boscowan. He’s been censored.
I know this, because he’s got “censored” written across his full-page Sunday Star-Times ad opposing the Electoral Finance Act.
Yes, apart from being one of the few people in the country able to afford to express his views in 850 words in a full-page ad in one of the nation’s biggest […]