Archive for December, 2025
Talley’s defamation decision looks strange to me
Thursday, December 18th, 2025I read a lot of judgments, and particularly ones about media law. I have never felt more disconcerted than when I read this one. As you probably know, Talley’s sued TVNZ for defamation over a series of stories (and related online articles) from 2021. They mostly alleged health and safety violations. TVNZ defended it, and […]
Should I issue a correction?
Thursday, December 18th, 2025So now I’ve heard from Virginia Nicholl of the NZ Alcohol and Beverages Council. She says that the 2-drink guideline is not official Canadian government policy, and refers me to this link and Eric Crampton’s analysis here. This getting further into the weeds than I expected when I blogged about the overlap between the Media […]
Should the Media Council issue a retraction?
Wednesday, December 17th, 2025Well, this is interesting. After writing the post below, I was contacted by Andrew Galloway, the Executive Director of Alcohol Healthwatch. Guess what? He says the 2-drink guideline is in fact official Canadian policy. He refers to an email from a WHO-affiliated official who says the alcohol industry has been trying, unsuccessfully, to get the […]
Media regulation system breaking down?
Tuesday, December 16th, 2025It was bound to happen sooner or later. Complaints are being made to both the Media Council and the Broadcasting Standards Authority about basically the same stories. And they’re reaching different conclusions. How can this happen? Easily. Let’s say Radio NZ broadcasts a story or interview, then posts a text version of it, as it […]