Alexander: TVNZ 'bullying' a threat to right to complain

TVNZ's High Court action to overturn a Broadcasting Standards Association ruling comes "dangerously close to outright corporate bullying and is a real threat to the right of citizens and small interest groups to make legitimate complaints", United Future broadcasting spokesman Marc Alexander today.

The court challenge seeks to overturn a BSA ruling that upheld a complaint by Viewers for Television Excellence (VOTE) about the failure to warn viewers prior to a graphic and potentially offensive item on the TV One News in July last year. The item concerned torture, mutilation, rape and killings in Uganda.

"The BSA has ruled, and clearly TVNZ doesn't like its decision. But by taking the matter to court, TVNZ has jeopardised the whole process by which Joe Citizen can now express a view or question standards.

"Next time someone wants to challenge the State broadcaster, will they need to take a second mortgage out on their house to meet court costs?

"Is that how TVNZ intends to silence its critics?"

© 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>>