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)

Archive for February, 2010

« Previous Entries

Law Commission makes privacy recommendations

Friday, February 26th, 2010

There’s another report from the Law Commission on privacy: this one the culmination of many of the others. The report’s not up on the website yet, but it seems that the key recommendations are: no change to the tort established in Hosking v Runting. creation of a new offence of trespassing on someone’s property to […]

UK Parliamentary committee recommends reform of media regulation

Thursday, February 25th, 2010

The British Culture, Media and Sport Committee has released its report into press standards, privacy and libel. Recommendations: Privacy tort: No change. In particular, no legal requirement for the media to give notice to people who’s privacy they’re about to invade in an upcoming story, though a failure to provide such notice should hike any […]

BSA fucks up

Tuesday, February 23rd, 2010

The Broadcasting Standards Authority has upheld a complaint against the radio broadcast of Lily Allen’s song “Fuck You”, broadcast on Sunday and Tuesday afternoons on The Edge. I think they were wrong to do so, and I think it demonstrates that they still don’t really understand the Bill of Rights Act. If it were just […]

Michael Laws breaches broadcasting standards again

Tuesday, February 23rd, 2010

The BSA has pinged RadioLive talkback host Michael Laws yet again, this time for “blatant misrepresentation”. He had an exchange of emails with a health official concerned with Maori smoking that said: Laws: Stick to trying to get Māori to quit smoking, will you? Not exactly a sparkling success story, is it? Broughton: Not really. […]

Mau about gay issues

Tuesday, February 23rd, 2010

Well, recent events have given a certain piquancy to the broadcasting standards complaint about this exchange between Paul Henry and Alison Mau, on Breakfast last year: Henry:  …a little bit later in the morning I thought we might talk about the Acting Principal Family Court Judge’s call that it’s time the adoption laws were updated […]

Defamation claimant bombs

Sunday, February 21st, 2010

Brady Errol Chadwick has suffered a setback in his defamation claim against the Dominion Post. He has been ordered to pay $10,000 security for costs, which means that it’s unlikely his case will progress. This will be a relief to Fairfax since it’s not at all clear the media organisation would have been able to […]

PN suppression: missed angle?

Wednesday, February 17th, 2010

Take 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, 2010

I 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 […]

The Palmerston North name suppression decision

Tuesday, February 16th, 2010

Is here.

Chasing Ali

Monday, February 15th, 2010

The latest development in the Alison Mau saga reads like a media law exam question. On Breakfast TV she took a swipe at Woman’s Day, saying its “paparazzi photographer has been stalking me, my children and my friends for a month now, quite possibly more, following me to the supermarket, the kids’ tennis and touch […]

« Previous Entries