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Right!
By Steven | November 24, 2008
And here’s a political ad complaint I think the Advertising Standards Complaint Board got right. Again, it’s against ACT. This time, it’s against ACT’s claim that:
“Safe” New Zealand is now almost three times more violent than the US
As usual, the ASCB invited ACT to substantiate its claim. It seems from the decision that ACT, despite being given two opportunities, could not. The party merely talked generally about how it depends on how you compare statistics. It seems that ACT didn’t supply any actual source for its claim.
Pause here. How staggering that ACT was happy to garner votes with this claim, but not prepared to substantiate it – even to a body whose self-regulatory nature ACT would presumably applaud.
So a majority of the ACSB upheld the complaint. Should we be troubled that the ASCB is upholding a complaint against political speech when it doesn’t actually know that the claim was false, and has taken no steps itself to find out? A bit, I think. I’m inclined to think this is yet another example of the ASCB applying its usual processes to a political complaint without thinking hard about whether different ones might be needed. But of course, the ASCB isn’t resourced to undertake its own investigations, and had very little time here. Also, the advertiser is surely in the best place to substantiate the claim. Ultimately, I think the ASCB’s majority got this one right.
But again, despite deciding the case before the election, voters weren’t told about the misleading advertising until after they’d voted.
Topics: Advertising Standards, NZ Bill of Rights Act | Comments Off on Right!