Steven Price

My book

Media Minefield


Guide to NZ Media Law

Official Information Act

Official Information Act


Bill of Rights Act

Media law resources

Feeds (RSS)

Parliamentary privilege

An unprivileged position II

Thursday, September 16th, 2010

Tom Frewen [and Graeme Edgeler] noted that last year the Privileges Committee looked at the issue of the scope of the media’s privilege to report on proceedings in the House, and also concluded that it was much less than the media tend to think it is:  The media play an important role in providing the public with information about thebusiness […]

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 […]

Just as long as you’re not “impugning Parliament”…

Friday, November 6th, 2009

Another part of Justice Dobson’s decision in Leigh (discussed below) revolves around the court’s anxiousness not to involve the courts in any impugning of Parliament. He rules that Ms Leigh can’t use Trevor Mallard’s attack on her in Parliament during Question Time to support her case. There is good authority for this rule. One is […]

And speaking of defamation lawsuits involving fisheries…

Thursday, September 25th, 2008

The Simunovich case (discussed below) isn’t the same as Winston Peters’ defamation lawsuit against TVNZ, Radio NZ and others about the fisheries issues – the case that saw Rodney Hide ejected from the House late last month. Peters fumed that Hide was improperly trying to raise issues during question time that were being contested in […]