The Whale certainly created a splash in the last New Zealand election. More accurately, it was investigative journalist Nicky Hager and his book Dirty Politics that created the splash. The Whale – controversial right-wing blogger Cameron Slater and his Whale Oil blog, whose emails were leaked to Mr Hager – copped most of the spray. (I should disclose that I act for Nicky Hager). Continue reading
The International Forum for Responsible Media Blog
Tag: Steven Price
In the significant New Zealand Court of Appeal decision in Murray v Wishart ([2014] NZCA 461) the judges unanimously ruled that a third party publisher (the owner of a Facebook page that contained comments by others) was not liable for other people’s comments simply because he “ought to have known” that they contain defamatory material (even if he didn’t actually know of the content of the comments). Continue reading
A bill before the New Zealand parliament would allow judges to issue online take-down orders against bloggers and the media. I’m for it. Let me tell you why. Continue reading
Beware the defamation minefield … New Zealand barrister Steven Price has a 12-point checklist that’s especially useful for the unwary
How do you avoid being sued for defamation? That’s easy. Don’t ever say anything interesting. If you do want to say something that might reflect negatively on someone else, there is always a chance that they will sue you for defamation. Continue reading
Reading the New Zealand Court of Appeal’s decision in Smith v Dooley ([2013] NZCA 428) you get the feeling that the High Court blundered in all the ways it’s possible to blunder in a defamation case. Continue reading
The good news, for the Law Commission: the government thinks the Commission’s report on media regulation – recommending the establishment of a one-stop media complaints body serving print, broadcast and online platforms – is “excellent”. The bad news: the government has rejected that recommendation. Continue reading
New Zealand has been looking at new proposals for media regulation which address the digital revolution … Unlike Australia and the UK, the NZ Law Commission’s media reform plans have met with minimal resistance … Barrister Steven Price investigates Continue reading
Memo to anyone thinking of suing or threatening someone else for defamation after that person made fun of them. Don’t.
It’s not that the law clearly protects humorous speech and satire. That question is a bit vexed. It’s defamatory to say something that brings another person into ridicule. So it looks like that is fairly easily satisfied. Actually, those looks are deceptive. Continue reading
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