Thu, 2 Sep 2004

Swimming Pool Fencing: 50% Exaggeration OK

Press Release:- Pool Owners Action Group Spokesman: Gary Osborne

On 2 June 2004 Waitakere City Council ran an inaccurate advertisement claiming 6 pre-school children drown each year in private pools. The figure should be 4 for the whole of New Zealand.

On 4 June, I complained to the Advertising Standards Authority and was informed some 2 months later that my complaint was not upheld as the Board concluded "the social good imparted by the message overrode the inaccuracy of the figures."

Meanwhile, Denis Sheard, Legal Services Manager for Waitakere City Council, emailed me to inform me "As recently as 16 June I saw a draft communication from that body (Water Safety NZ) which contained a statement that there was on (sic) average of "six to seven" preschool deaths from drowning in domestic pools." He went on to say "Council does not think it makes any difference whether the number is "around four" or "around six".

On 19 June, at my insistence, after initially accusing me of being pedantic, Alan Muir of Water Safety NZ, corrected the Pool Safe website from 6 drownings per annum to 4.

On 6 August I appealed the decision of the Advertising Standards Complaints Board enclosing the comments from Denis Sheard.

On 1 September I received a letter from the Board saying my appeal was not accepted and "the Chairman was of the view that it did not present any new evidence.

The Pool Owners Action Group has now opened its own website www.poag.org.nz and hopes to keep the New zealand public much better informed on the pool fencing issue.

ENDS

© Scoop Media

Gordon Campbell: On the Sony cyber attack

Given the layers of meta-irony involved, the saga of the Sony cyber attack seemed at the outset more like a snarky European art film than a popcorn entry at the multiplex.

Yet now with (a) President Barack Obama weighing in on the side of artistic freedom and calling for the US to make a ‘proportionate response’quickly followed by (b) North Korea’s entire Internet service going down, and with both these events being followed by (c) Sony deciding to backtrack and release The Interview film that had made it a target for the dastardly North Koreans in the first place, then ay caramba…the whole world will now be watching how this affair pans out. More>>