I’ve been asked to post the following ad. If you are pillar of the community type, and interested in both free speech and media accountability, this could be for you. NEW ZEALAND MEDIA COUNCIL Public Member Appointment Do you have a passion for News and Current Affairs? Do you have an interest in Media Standards? The New Zealand Media Council is seeking applications from suitable candidates for appointment as a member of the Council representing the public. The appointee will be required to start in January 2022. The Media Council provides the public with an independent forum for resolving com ..read more

This isn’t about media law. It is much more important. Lawyers for Climate Action NZ is seeking judicial review of the Climate Change Commission’s recommendations. It argues that the recommended cuts are not enough to contribute to keeping warming to 1.5 degrees as we’ve pledged to do in the Paris Accord. It also alleges that the Commission’s accounting measures are flawed and make our carbon picture look rosier than it is. This may be the most important piece of litigation in any of our lifetimes. I’m a member of LCANZI. All its work is voluntary. LCANZI is seeking donations to help hire an a ..read more

A question occurs to me that seems worth throwing into the debate. An ambiguity I think there’s an ambiguity in the proposed law. We don’t know the exact wording of the offence. It seems the government doesn’t have one. It’s not in the Cabinet paper or the discussion paper anyway. That makes it hard to analyse. But it seems to me that one question leaps off the pages of the discussion paper. The discussion paper says: It would be a crime to intentionally incite/stir up, maintain or normalise hatred… (if it’s a threatening, abusive or insulting communication, including inciting violence, and ..read more

Graeme Edgeler has a terrific post making the case for hate speech laws. He is at best ambivalent about hate speech laws, and says he will also be putting up a post making the case against them. This is where the debate should be. It’s dispiriting how far away from this the debate is ..read more

Something is going wrong here. On NewsTalk ZB’s overnight talkback show, host Bruce Russell endorsed Trump’s claim that there was electoral fraud in Georgia, playing clips from people who said things like “there was fraud in Georgia’s election, we can prove it with data”. Russell concluded: “I think it speaks for itself, receiving 75 percent or more votes for one candidate in a precinct is historically abnormal.” He also said, of Trump’s call to Georgia’s Secretary of State to persuade him to overturn the election result: “In fact, what Trump was doing was talking about the votes that had been ..read more

What is it with the media and hate speech laws? They loathe them. And in their anxiousness to ridicule and discredit them, and excite contempt against them, they seem happy to distort the debate. Do hate speech laws need hate speech protection? Newshub’s recent coverage Look at Newshub’s coverage in the past 24 hours. They interviewed the PM, then posted two columns – by Tova O’Brien and Duncan Garner – excoriating her (and Minister of Justice Kris Faafoi) for failing to understand “the policy direction and intent of the law” (O’Brien), misleading  us about it, and “trying to shut down de ..read more

“De-platforming”. It’s the free-speech zealot’s issue-du-jour. I’m looking at you, Damien Grant. It seems so exactly what cancel culture is. Don’t like the speech? Ban it. Except it’s not really a ban, is it? There is nothing to stop those poor begagged individuals from putting out press releases and YouTube videos, railing on social media, and speaking out on television and radio about… how their speech has been shut down so outrageously. Other pressure groups can only dream of such opportunity to put across their views, such a terrific… platform. What if the Free Speech Union itself were dep ..read more

I see Matthew Hooton has noted that I have acted for Nicky Hager and accused me of hypocrisy for suggesting that National broke the law with its budget leaks. He seems to think his logic is obvious. I guess it’s that Hager published confidential material leaked from the government (see especially: Other People’s Wars and The Hollow Men) and I didn’t accuse them of breach of confidence. That can only be explained by the fact that I am a lefty, Labour-apologist lickspittle. I thought my argument was clear from my blog post yesterday, but let me spell it out anyway: Hager made unauthorised use of ..read more

I’ve just been listening to Simon Bridges’ press conference at Parliament about the budget leak. His main point was to deny that the leaked budget material was a result of a hack. But he made the broader claim that the Nats’ behaviour throughout was “entirely appropriate”. He said there had been “nothing illegal or anything approaching that from the National Party.” He denied that their conduct was at any point unlawful. I think he’s wrong. I think the Nats have probably engaged in  unlawful behaviour from the get-go. That’s regardless of whether the budget material they released was hack ..read more

I’m sorry to see Guyon depart the presenter’s chair on RNZ’s Morning Report. I think he’s one of the best interviewers RNZ has ever had. He is well-informed, thoughtful and persistent. He consistently asks good questions and presses for answers. He is fearlessly independent. And I salute his use of te reo Maaori, which always gives me a little squirt of pride. He was part of a great team with Susie Ferguson. He’s also right that it’s his job to interrupt sometimes, even if some listeners don’t appreciate it. These days, politicians and spokespeople are coached by savvy media trainers in how to ..read more