NZ Bill of Rights Act
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Friday, October 31st, 2008The Wellington City Council is requiring prior approval and bonds for the posting of political posters on council-owned poster bollards, and is apparently restricting their locations. Dean Knight rightly takes issue with this policy here and here.
Labour’s YouTube Boob
Thursday, October 30th, 2008Did John Key say National would cut KiwiSaver in half? That’s what Labour said in their “John and John” ad. The ad was broadcast on TV and posted on YouTube. One S Davies-Colley thought was misleading, and complained about it. Under NZ’s increasingly creaky media law edifice, complaints about TV and radio election ads go to the Broadcasting Standards […]
Nice Job 3
Thursday, October 2nd, 2008This week also sees a ripper of a decision from Justice Harrison, overturning Judge Treston’s ruling that the media can’t have a copy of the videotape evidence from the unsuccessful prosecution of the police officers accused of assaulting Rawiri Falwasser with batons and pepper spray in custody. (I have criticised Judge Treston’s decision here). Among […]
Nice job 1
Thursday, October 2nd, 2008Kudos to: Judge David Harvey for reversing course on the suppression order that applied only to the internet. As I’ve discussed, he had reasons for imposing the unusual order, though I thought they weren’t sufficient. When the media belatedly turned up to argue the toss, the judge accepted that: absent an identifiable risk to a […]
Just wondering…
Thursday, September 4th, 2008Did Judge Perkins consider the NZ Bill of Rights Act before issuing a blanket suppression order in the Arms Act charges relating to the police raids last year? These sorts of discretions must be exercised consistently with the BORA – so the restrictions should be demonstrably justified in terms of the tests laid down by the […]
Keeping abreast of legal issues
Friday, August 15th, 2008Dean Knight and I have been debating one of the finer points of the Bill of Rights Act. We’ve been talking about how it might apply to the proposed boobs-on-bikes parade. (I gather an injunction application is being argued as I type). The question relates to Bob McCoskrie’s [corrected spelling courtesy of Robyn: see comments] claim that the […]
Auckland Council boob-oo?
Friday, August 15th, 2008Can the new Auckland Council bylaw requiring permits for (among other things) “any organised temporary activity including an organised gathering, parade, protest…” on public streets possibly be lawful? Administrative law expert Dean Knight doesn’t think so. His terrific analysis concludes: I am very confident in saying that, to the extent that the bylaw requires citizens […]
Okay, so does Mosley affect NZ law?
Monday, July 28th, 2008Quite a bit, potentially. Remember, there was no claim in defamation (Mosley now says he’ll bring a separate lawsuit for that). And Mosley had failed in his injunction bid because the cat was out of the bag – the pictures were in the public domain. Remember, too, that the framework of the law in the […]
Jesus, this law sucks
Sunday, July 27th, 2008A belated note: the UK has abolished the offence of blasphemy. It was a stupid offence for any number of reasons, not least of which is that it only applies to insulting Christianity. I’m with Norightturn, who reckons it’s time to follow suit in NZ. Blasphemous libel is still in the Crimes Act. There has […]
A burning issue
Friday, July 25th, 2008I’m afraid my tirade about the ridiculousness of Valerie Morse’s conviction for burning a flag didn’t do any good. She lost her appeal to the High Court. Morse burned a flag at last year’s Anzac Day dawn parade at the Cenotaph in Wellington. She was gathered with other protestors in the university grounds over the road. She burned […]
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