Whale-watching: Frenemies like these

Prime Minister John Key has warned blogger Cameron Slater he cannot break name suppression laws just because he disagrees with them.

The warning came as Whanganui Mayor and former MP Michael Laws started a fighting fund yesterday on his talkback radio show for Slater’s legal defence.

Stuff.co.nz: Blogger warned

Indeed, the horse has bolted.

Perhaps this is the start of the shitstorm  Whaleoil promised us last week.

1. I bet Russell is puce-faced
2. A victim writes
3. Finally a judge we can believe in
4. A suppression joke
5. A mad woman’s poo

The last, in particular invokes the storm image.

The victim’s message is heart-felt, no doubt, but what does it add to rhe debate, The perceptions – that there is no “justce”, that “bastards” deserve “it”, are populist myths that feed the whole vengance riff and notion that the “system” has failed victims of crime, that I mentioned last week.

Here’s a few more links to push some thinking on this issue.

Is there moral equivalence between naming someone who owes you money, a dickhead, local petty crims,  sex-addict celebrity love rats, sadistic child-killers and state-sanctioned torturers?

Someone’s lawyer might be interested in this

[28 April update Legal letter freaks out Big News]

I’ve just been to Big News and there’s a very interesting post that I reckon a couple of legal eagles might like to take a look at.

It seems that someone’s been a very naughty boy – and totally stupid to boot.

Someone has been posing as a number of senior New Zealand journalists to post comments on a Big News blog item and, apart from being very peurile, it strikes me as possibly worthy of a legal challenge.

Big News names the culprit as a student journo at Victoria University in Wellington. Michael Oliver is the news editor of the Vic Uni student mag, Salient.

[30 April update:

Big News wrote: I can now reveal that those comments on this blog were done in the offices of Salient, and a Salient volunteer has taken the rap. I doubt whether this volunteer was alone. I was advised today, after being threatened with a defamation suit by the Victoria University Student’s Association(VUWSA) two days earlier, that current editor Jackson Wood was “aware of it” and knew “who is responsible” after initially writing to me denying any knowledge of the spamming.]

If I was Mark Sainsbury, or Carol Hirschfeld,  or Tony Veitch, or Zoe Halford, or Mike McRoberts, or Glenda Hughes, or Dave’s mum, I’d want to take the jerk who did this outside for a quite talk and a noisy thumping. Or maybe I’d just sue the arse of the little turd who is responsible. You can view his/her handiwork on this post at Big News

An intersting defamation case from Australia

‘Pervert’s mates’ win $480,000 from newspaper – National – smh.com.au

An interesting defamation case from Australia.

IN A startling twist to the story of the disgraced public prosecutor Patrick Power, 16 of his influential colleagues and friends have won $480,000 from The Daily Telegraph in settlement of a defamation action.

They were among a group of august legal and business identities, family and friends who wrote references for Power in the course of his criminal prosecution on charges of possessing child pornography.

One of them – the Nudie juice founder Tim Pethick – is married to an executive at News Limited, the paper’s publisher.

“Pervert and his 59 mates,” read the Telegraph’s headline on the day that it reported the names of Power’s referees.

A follow-up story in The Sunday Telegraph named a full list of 84 referees, picturing some with the caption “Named and Shamed”. The newspapers’ website also published a series of readers’ comments that were central to the threatened defamation action.

media ethics, journalism

Alan Jones – sincerity bypass successful!

Jones comments on Coates were ‘honestly held’ opinion. 04/05/2007. ABC News Online

Ah, Alan Jones, love him or hate him you’ve got to give the guy credit for two massive balls.
As the broadcaster of choice for a range of conservative causes he’s never short of a topic to blag about, or a strawdog to kick.
Now he’s in trouble for defaming one of Australia’s leading sports administrators. He’s going the “honest Al” route here claiming the comments were based on his sincere beliefs.
I’m sure the jury won’t be fooled, this man had a sincerity bypass as a young man, the sincerity sac was replaced with giant money bags.

media ethics, journalism

The (not so) poor old Corbys

Schapelle Corby continues to languish in an Indonesian prison after being convicted of drug-smuggling in a flashy show trial, and her family is being hounded for the proceeds of her book sales. Now there’s a new twist, former “second best friends” are fallling out in a case that’s set to go before the NSW Supreme Court.
Mercedes Corby is suing her former gal-pal Jodi Power over claims made by Power that the Corby family is involved in drug dealing on a major scale.
Channel Seven’s Today Tonight is also named in the writ as the Sydney Morning Herald recently reported.
“Ouch”, cat fight ahead!

media ethics, journalism