Posts by Paul Williams
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Regardless of whether or not there's a conviction, I quite agree your comments about the Police. You'd hope they're reviewing their processes in light of this situation (also, credit to McCready).
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I look forward to Graeme's analysis of the judgment that Banks will stand trial as he predicted as reported here.
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Hard News: The judge is not helping, in reply to Craig Ranapia,
So, how many times does a journalist or media outlet have to (say) end up issuing a partial or full retraction of a story before they don’t count any more?
I'm going to say three times in any one calendar year. I'm not allowed to fuck up that often.
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Hard News: The judge is not helping, in reply to Keir Leslie,
I think he’s gesturing towards a reasonably good principle that if you’re an abusive unprofessional dickhead, you can’t shelter yourself and your sources behind a profession you aren’t part of
That seems entirely reasonable.
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the idea that he shouldn't (morally) be allowed to argue whatever point suits him in the courts
Sure. Mostly, I agree. Ultimately, though it might be in all our interests that he does appeal, even allowing for the fact that his is an hypocritical argument, so that we get a better judgment.
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Hard News: The judge is not helping, in reply to Ben McNicoll,
A sort of mirror image of I/S, but more evil and with a direct line to various figures in the Nats
Keir, I think you do I/S a disservice here.
And if he lost that argument, shouldn’t he win this one?
I suspect you know the answer is no – that it depends on the facts etc, however I entirely get your point (edit: subsequently I see it is a slightly different question and answer)
I’m pretty sure the DomPost doesn’t publish the kind of actionable nonsense Slater makes a habit of.
That was kinda my point previously – the legal protections enjoyed by the media exist for a public purpose, namely to ensure the public can scrutinise the issues of the day, particularly where the parties have privileged or powerful positions. It should be a serious undertaking, with established and transparent accountabilities, including some expectation of consistency.
I think Graeme and Steve Price are debating this in parallel elsewhere.
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Hard News: The judge is not helping, in reply to Ian Dalziel,
How about: “a medium for the responsible dissemination to the public or a section of the public of news and relevant observations on news”
There's an awful lot of subjectivity in 'responsible" and "relevant" however .
If a defendant wants to claim truth as a defence then the onus is on the defendant to prove that what was said was true, or not materially different from the truth.
Am I wrong in recalling also, that truth is not an absolute defence either (and once was)?
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And as I said to Radio New Zealand’s reporter, the reality of self-publishing is that the same individual or blog might be news media one day and just an arsehole the next.
I get the point your making, and haven't read the LC report or the judgment, however I can't help but wonder if a pattern of consistency ought to be part of the test for what is 'media'? By this I mean consistently being a partisan hack with the odd news story mightn't meet the test and therefore not afford the protections?
Either way, it does seem likely that an appeal will elicit a sharper judgment since 'all blogs are not media' is clearly false and stuck in the early '90s.
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Hard News: Friday Music: Little, but…, in reply to JacksonP,
Ok, now we’re stretching it, but before someone posts that Gladiator, these guys represented the ANZACs in 1994.
I can't quite tell if the late and truly great Paul Hester was playing in this clip? The camera moves around too much... it's good to remember him, he was such a gloriously energetic entertainer.
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This might be a bit of a threadjack, however I thought readers here would be interested to see the maiden speech of the first ever Aboriginal woman, Nova Peris, elected to the Australian Parliament (in the Senate). It's made me very happy (and more than a bit teary too).