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Archive for August, 2009

Holiday time

Thursday, August 20th, 2009

I’m off to Hong Kong, London and the South of Spain for six weeks or so. Then I’ll be based in Melbourne for a few weeks, beginning on October 10. Back in NZ late November. If you want to contact me, best to try claudiasteven@gmail.com, which I’ll try to check regularly.

Irish Supreme Court protects source confidentiality

Thursday, August 20th, 2009

The Irish Supreme Court has allowed two journalists to refuse to answer questions that would have made them disclose their sources. Trinity College senior lecturer and blogger Dr Eion O’Dell welcomes the decision, but thinks it falls short of recognising a full-blown journalists’ privilege.

Let Us Stray (from the facts)

Wednesday, August 19th, 2009

Sigh. Let Us Spray producer Keith Slater has given an interview on MediaWatch, defending the documentary Let Us Spray after the BSA upheld complaints against it. Well, that’s his right. And plainly, he still thinks the documentary was right. But he’s still making statements that strike me as just as misleading as the programme was. […]

Sad news

Friday, August 14th, 2009

Auckland University law professor Mike Taggart has died. He was a colossus in the public law field, and a really nice guy to boot. His death wasn’t unexpected, but it’s no less tragic for that.

Monkeying around

Thursday, August 13th, 2009

Sean Plunkett was on top form this morning. After interviewing the park manager with the vaguely familiar name who’s hoping people will contact him if they spot Minty the runnaway monkey, he wrapped up with: Thank you very much. That was Willowbank park manager Jeremy Maguire, who says: “Show me the monkey”. Well done, that […]

Sparking debate

Monday, August 10th, 2009

I’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 […]

BSA upholds complaint against Qantas-award-winning doco

Monday, August 10th, 2009

The Broadcasting Standards Authority has concluded that Let Us Spray, TV3’s “year-long investigation” into the effects of dioxin on the residents of Paritutu, was seriously unbalanced and unfair. It has also found that two associated TV3 news stories were unfair, unbalanced and inaccurate. The complainants were the Ministry of Health, which was accused of covering up and […]