Thursday, 16 September, 2004

Alexander: Labour wavering on prisoner compo

The Government law and order tag team of Phil Goff and Rick Barker is getting soft, United Future's Marc Alexander said today.

"If they really cant write the law quick enough to deal with the issue of prisoners pocketing compensation, then they should at least take up my suggestion of legislation that freezes all claims in the meantime - and make it retrospective," Mr Alexander, United Future's law and order spokesman, said.

"Let's get back to basics: It can never be in the interests of justice to reward criminals for their choice to be criminals. If that concept is firmly held in mind, this debacle can be fixed.

Mr Alexander said he was disappointed to see signs of wavering from Labour on victims' rights, in reiterating his call for them to receive any compensation that ever came in the direction of a prisoner.

He said any prison guard found to have ill-treated a prisoner should be dealt with severely.

ENDS

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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>>