Archive for April, 2008
NZ Censor Doesn’t Stymie Grand Theft Auto Plot
Monday, April 28th, 2008You could be forgiven for getting the opposite impression from the NZ Herald’s headline: Censor Stymies Grand Theft Auto Plot It rather suggests that our censor has carved out chunks of the latest version of the wildly popular – and wildly violent – video game Grand Theft Auto. Nope. If you read the story carefully, […]
A tragic comment
Thursday, April 24th, 2008Perhaps Objectivist Lindsay Perigo is within his rights to complain about the “media ghouls’” lack of respect for the dignity of the Mangatepopo canyoning victims’ families and friends. But he’s drawing a long bow to blame the invasion of privacy (and the subjects’ willingness to succumb to it) on his all-purpose whipping boy, “statism”: It is testament to […]
Soapbox: internet company ISPed off
Thursday, April 24th, 2008Don Price, head of the Hawkes Bay internet company Wasp, wrote in to argue that ISPs are grown-up enough to develop their own industry standards: I find it very interesting that once again we (the internet business community) through the new Copyright Act will have the unenviable privilege of the legal fraternity with their intellectual might […]
To die like a blog
Saturday, April 19th, 2008Poneke is reporting that blogger HotTopic has withdrawn a post criticising the Listener and its editor after receiving a (presumably defamation) threat from the magazine’s lawyers. In its place, there’s a fullsome correction and apology (which looks to have been drafted by said lawyers). In the comments section of the correction and apology, someone has helpfully posted […]
ACCURACY UNDER ATTACK
Friday, April 18th, 2008As an occasional critic of the Press Council in the past, it would be churlish of me not to acknowledge its robust (and unanimous) ruling in a complaint I brought on behalf of the Coalition for Open Government. The complaint was mostly about the NZ Herald’s front page editorial excoriating the Electoral Finance Bill, headed […]
New notice-and-takedown regime for ISPs
Thursday, April 10th, 2008Under the most significant provisions of the new amendments to the Copyright Act (which have been passed by Parliament but haven’t yet come into force), ISPs can be liable if their users infringe copyright. But only if: They’ve authorised or controlled the copying; or They’ve stored the material and know or have reason to believe […]
Indian IPL league manacles reporters
Thursday, April 10th, 2008You can film our 20/20 matches, but you can’t put pictures on the web. Oh, and we can use any pictures you take as we like, for free. These are the reporting conditions proposed for the IPL’s new cricket league. The UK’s Newspaper Publishers Association calls them “some of the most restrictive and burdensome access arrangements […]
Canadian Supreme Court to decide on new defamation defence
Thursday, April 10th, 2008Leave has been granted for the Canadian Supreme Court to rule on whether Canada will recognise a public interest/responsible journalism defence along the lines of Reynolds in the UK (and related to the Lange cases in NZ and Australia). I discussed the Canadian Court of Appeal decision here. The Canadian decision is likely to be […]
BSA in a bind
Thursday, April 3rd, 2008I think the BSA has broken the law. I think they’ve done it in order to avoid breaking the law. Confused? Let me explain. They’ve issued a decision upholding (by majority) a complaint against TVNZ’s Sunday programme on grounds of inaccuracy and unfairness. But the decision contains no reasoning. It seems this is because the reasoning […]
BSA round-up
Wednesday, April 2nd, 2008When showing graphic footage (such as autopsy photos) on the news, the broadcaster should use a warning, and put the graphic footage far enough into the news item to give parents a chance to turn off the TV. When running a story about a campaign against child abuse, showing some photos of the beaten body […]