New Zealand Law Commission Report on Regulation of the Media

The New Zealand Law Commission has released a report on the Review of Regulatory Gaps and the New Media.The review was prompted by concern about the disparities in the legal and ethical standards that apply to news as a result of the emergence of new web-based publishers and the convergence of mainstream print and broadcast media online:

"The Report recommends a new complaints body be set up to provide New Zealanders with a consistent set of news media standards and a one-stop-shop for adjudicating complaints across all news producers. Membership of the new body would be voluntary and open to both the traditional mainstream news media and the new media (e.g. news and current affairs bloggers and websites), provided they are willing to be accountable to the new standards body. The new body would draw on and strengthen the best features of the current platform-based complaints bodies (the Press Council, the Broadcasting Standards Authority and the Online Media Standards Authority)."

"The Report recommends two specific statutory amendments once the new complaints body is established:

• an amendment to the Broadcasting Act 1989, to alter the jurisdiction of the Broadcasting Standards Authority;
• amendments to the Privacy Act 1993, the Electoral Act 1993, the Human Rights Act 1993 and the Fair Trading Act 1986 (that confer specific privileges on the news media) to align these statutes with media privileges in the Criminal Procedure Act 2011 - making conferral of the privileges conditional on membership of the new complaints body."

"An appendix to the Report contains the Commission’s Ministerial Briefing to the Hon Judith Collins: Harmful Digital Communications: The Adequacy of the Current Sanctions and Remedies (August 2012), containing recommendations and a proposed Bill. This briefing recommended a range of measures to address the problems caused by seriously harmful personal online or digital attacks, including a new criminal offence and the establishment of a Communications Tribunal."