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Archive for November, 2011

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Should the Treasury asset-sales advice have been released?

Tuesday, November 29th, 2011

The Chief Ombudsman Beverley Wakem says no. OIA expert John Edwards isn’t so sure. He provides a thorough and thoughtful analysis of her decision here. Under the OIA, you’re entitled to see almost any information held by the government just by asking for it. To withhold information, the government must point to one of the specific […]

How to door-step someone

Tuesday, November 29th, 2011

John Campbell has demonstrated, with immaculate ethics, how to go about door-stepping someone. Door-stepping is turning up to someone’s place with cameras rolling to get that person to answer questions. As the BSA has often said, it’s usually unfair to do this. But the Campbell Live crew weren’t unfair. They were doing a story on Tower Insurance. They’d […]

John Key backs MMP

Friday, November 25th, 2011

I think you should vote to retain MMP on Saturday. But don’t listen to me. Listen to John Key. “Every vote counts,” he said this morning. He’s right, and it’s one of the best features of MMP. It’s not true (or not nearly as true) for any of the other voting systems. It’s not really true […]

No declaration after tea

Wednesday, November 23rd, 2011

Winkelmann J has declined to grant a declaration that the famous Epsom cuppa was not a private conversation. Does that mean it was a private conversation? No, it just means that she’s declined to rule on the issue right now. She gives several reasons. First, there are still facts in dispute, and she wan’t sure she […]

Focusing on the issues

Monday, November 21st, 2011

I know I’m straying from media law stuff again. Let’s call it general media ethics. But I’m staggered that we can have an election campaign without discussing the ideas in two recent and significant New Zealand books: Nicky Hager’s “Other People’s Wars”, which accuses successive governments of being much more deeply involved in the conflicts in Iraq […]

The worm returns

Monday, November 21st, 2011

I see TV3 plan to use the worm again on tonight’s debate. Sigh. Here’s a column I wrote opposing the worm back in 2005. I think it still holds true.

Memo to John Key

Monday, November 21st, 2011

Stop talking about Winston Peters. At all. The 5% of New Zealand who might vote for him are not amenable to rational persuasion. They vote for him if they are reminded about him because he is in the news.

Hosking lays down the law

Sunday, November 20th, 2011

At the end of his interview about cuppagate on RNZ’s MediaWatch programme today, Mike Hosking tells us that I think I have a pretty good appreciation of privacy law in this country. If he means, he’s got a pretty good understanding of those laws, I think the rest of the interview demonstrates that he’s wrong. […]

Huh?

Sunday, November 20th, 2011

Michael Laws, SST column today: And it counterpoints what all Kiwis know: that there exists a uniform inability within the Fourth Estate to understand proportion and excess. Michael Laws, on Talkback earlier this week: If I had a gun, I’d shoot them [teagate journalists] – because they have gone rabid and they may infect others… […]

Chief Electoral Officer: VFC claims are “factually incorrect, and misleading”

Friday, November 18th, 2011

I see I’m not alone in my concern that the anti-MMP group Vote For Change’s campaign is misleading when it emphasises that the alternative voting systems “could work with 99 MPs”. Robert Peden, the Chief Electoral Office, has seen the need to put out a press release about it: “The Vote for Change organisation is […]

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