INL DIGITAL EDITION 1st August 2020

12
AUGUST 1, 2020
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Stringent defamation laws toughens editorial calls
The English Fortnightly (Since November 1999)
ISSUE 443 | AUGUST 1, 2020
Police-Community
Partnership gets stronger
Police Commissioner
Andy Coster has set a
laudable target for New
Zealand Police, namely,
strengthening Partnership
with communities.
His objective gains added
dignity since it encompasses
inclusiveness, intensifying
the importance of ethnic
communities.
Describing the Police as a
‘genuine blue line,’ he said that
New Zealand can become the
safest country in the world
only through community
partnerships.
“I am greatly heartened by
the level of collaboration that I
am seeing in communities and
across the public service. We
need to keep building on this,
seeking genuine partnership
to strengthen communities.
There are a range of practical
things that fall out of these
priorities and we have already
started,” he said, speaking at
the Powhiri held in his honour
in Wellington on July 31, 2020.
An exemplary example
The need for Police-Public
Partnership has never
been stronger and the
Police-Community relationship
has never been stronger as it
is now in New Zealand. The
Christchurch massacre on
March 15, 2020, which took 51
Electionlink launch
opens battle gates
The launch of ‘Electionlink’
of this newspaper
by Kelvin Davis on
behalf of Labour Party
on July 20, 2020 and by Simon
Bridges on behalf of National
Party on July 27, 2020 marked
the beginning of what promises
to be an honest carrier
of news and views in a major
battle for the ballot.
We have started carrying
views, opinions and features
written by journalists, analysts,
politicians, supporters of political
parties and most important
of all, our people every day.
As in the past, this would be a
no-holds-barred, free-for-all
coverage. Those with strong
political views would be able
to use this veritable platform
openly and frankly, keeping
of course to the confines of
decency and legitimate limits
of propriety.
Elections are fought in the
free world with ferocity, with
politicians and their supporters
accusing their opponents
of almost anything that they
believe, without the obligation
of having to provide any proof.
lives, injuring another 51 or
more persons reiterated the
existence of that relationship.
Looking at a few other countries,
America in particular, it
is evident that New Zealand
can become a prime example
of exemplary Police-Public
Partnership. USA is engulfed in
its most widespread, sustained
unrest in almost 70 years.
In the days since May 25,
2020, Americans have seen
their police forces look and act
less like public servants sworn
to protect their fellow citizens
than like an invading army. A
policeman in Brooklyn yanked
off a protester’s mask to
pepper-spray him in the face.
A key part of the approach is
for the Police and community
leaders to identify the young
people (generally males) most
likely to commit crimes, and
then to work together to stop
them doing so. The ‘Mentor,
Monitor, Minister’ strategy
involves counselling, training
and jobs.
Nowadays, Police in some
States actively seek out firms
to offer work for young people
they have been mentoring. All
this goes much farther than
New Zealand’s policy of Neighbourhood
Policing, ramped up
in recent years.
Until recently, general
elections in New Zealand were
marked by humour, goodwill
for each other, with hardly any
personal references. But over
the past few years, the gloves
have come off and politicians
have not only begun to punch
but also resort to a war of
words, which, according to
many, is ‘Dirty Politics.’
We are balanced
Ministers, Parliamentarians
of all groupings often tell us
the New Zealand Media is
biased but many of them are
tilted. MPs and selected candidates
of opposition parties
say that their statements and
speeches are always taken out
of context by some in the print
media and on the radio and
hence the people do not get the
benefit of balanced views.
Indian Newslink has
always been a newspaper
that has been neutral in its
approach towards politics. Our
platform is open with leaders
of political parties and others
to promote their policies and
programmes.
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Hayden Donnell
One of the things that destroyed
Todd Muller’s National Party
leadership was an apparent lie
to reporters during the leaked
Covid-19 patient data scandal.
Why were so many media outlets
reluctant to use the ‘L’ word to describe
his dishonesty?
On Thursday last week, Mr Muller
said something which was not true, and
on close examination, looked a lot like
a lie.
TVNZ reporter Thomas Mead was
asking the National Leader if Michelle
Boag was a source for his health
spokesman Michael Woodhouse.
Wrong denial
“Have you spoken to him?” Mead
asked.
Mr Muller was unequivocal. “No.”
The following day, he admitted that
he had spoken to Mr Woodhouse before
that denial.
His Health Spokesman had given
him a “heads-up” that he had received
information from Ms Boag, a former
National Party President, on Tuesday.
They had had another conversation
on Wednesday.
Mr Muller also deliberately omitted
details during the press conference,
repeating Ms Boag’s claim to have only
interacted with Clutha-Southland MP
Hamish Walker when he knew that was
not true.
Despite those inconsistencies, the
word “lie” did not appear in the TVNZ 1
News coverage on Friday.
Sharp contradictions
Political Reporter Maiki Sherman
put Muller’s statements throughout
the week in order and showed their
contradictions, but stopped short of
calling them deliberately dishonest.
Instead the National Leader was
labelled “evasive at best” and accused
him of saying something he “knew
wasn’t true.”
Other media also wrestled with the
question of whether to directly accuse
Mr Muller of lying to them. Newstalk
ZB’s Heather du Plessis-Allan got close
to using the word but stopped just short,
saying that Mr Muller suffered a “lack
of honesty“.
On TVNZ’s Q+A host Jack Tame put
the claim in the form of a question to
National’s deputy leader Nikki Kaye:
“Did your leader lie?”
The New Zealand Herald’s Amelia
Wade led on Muller’s own answer to
that same question.
Monday’s issue of The Bulletin by The
Spinoff also zeroed in on the question
of whether Mr Muller lied. It concluded
he had not, but acknowledged that he
had chosen not to reveal pertinent facts
when given the opportunity.
Outright accusation
Business Desk’s Pattrick Smellie was
the only columnist to accuse Mr Muller
of dishonesty outright, saying that the
National Leader had been “trapped
in a lie” due to Mead’s persistent
questioning.
Former National Party Leader Todd Muller (RNZ Picture by Dom Thomas
Smellie told Mediawatch that he had
used the phrase because it was the best
description of what took place.
“It was very clear what he was being
asked and it was very clear he didn’t
want to answer it.”
Blatant mistruths
After Mr Muller’s resignation on
Tuesday, New Zealand Herald Political
Editor Audrey Young also accused him
of “blatant mistruths” in Monday’s press
conference.
The question of when and whether
to use the word ‘lie’ has been a matter
of heated debate in journalists’ circles
since the rise of Donald Trump.
Dean Bacquet, Editor of The New
York Times, has ordered his reporters
to use the word judiciously when
describing the US President’s hurricane
of misinformation and false claims.
Repeatedly accusing Trump of lying
opens the Times up to claims that it is
partisan, he cautioned.
The obvious counter-argument, made
by commentators including the NYU
Journalism Lecturer Jay Rosen, is that
reporters should describe things accurately
whether or not it is convenient
for them to do so.
CNN fact-checker Daniel Dale, who
has reported extensively on Trump’s
falsehoods, defends using the term ‘lie.’
“It is not a departure from objective
journalism to use these words,” he told
The Washington Post. ”Why should
the rules of objective journalism mean
we have to dance around the obvious,
objective truth? If we are going to
get readers to trust us, we have to be
straight with them.”
Muller’s statements were not as clearcut
as some of Trump’s more outlandish
deceits.
But there may be an element of that
Bacquet-style reticence, or even just
human sympathy, in some journalists’
decisions not to name his comments as
a lie.
Proven intent
Another potential issue is proving intent.
Lying implies setting out to deceive
and Business Desk’s Patrick Smellie
accepted that Mr Muller may have
overstepped while trying to obfuscate.
“I used [trapped in a lie] because it
seemed to me that expressed what had
occurred rather than that he set out to
be mendacious,” he said.
“He just did not want to give that
answer and he tried various ways of not
giving it, and in the end he got trapped
into answering in a way that made it
appear he was saying he had not been
briefed, and then the very next day we
The Iain Lees-Galloway saga ripples
Venkat Raman
Iain Lees-Galloway, a young Minister
with plenty of promise has gone from
the Cabinet.
The 41-year-old Minister for Immigration,
Workplace Relations & Safety
and ACC was dismissed by Prime Minister
Jacinda Ardern on July 22, 2020 after he
admitted to an ‘inappropriate relationship’
with a member of staff employed in an
agency related to his portfolio in the
recent past.
Ms Ardern told a press conference
that she took the decision to sack Mr
Lees-Galloway during a meeting with him
the previous evening.
Untenable position
“I sat down with the Minister and asked
him questions and his answers made it
Iain Lees Galloway
clear that his position has become untenable.
He told me that the relationship that
he had with a staffer in one of the agencies
connected with his ministerial duties
ended several months ago. I have taken
into account all factors and decided that
he was not fit to continue as a Minister. He
was the Workplace Relations and Safety
Minister,” she said.
“It became clear that his position as a
find out he has.”
Defamation Laws
New Zealand’s strict defamation laws
are also a factor influencing editorial
calls on whether to use the word lie.
The Bulletin’s writer Alex Braae said
that the potential defamation threat
influenced his decision not to apply the
word to Mr Muller’s comments.
“In my view, Mr Muller’s statements
did not meet the threshold of calling
him a liar in print, which - because of
New Zealand’s defamation laws - is a
real high bar. People can make their
own minds up about whether he was
totally honest,” he said.
These concerns also restricted the
show Mediawatch, which has not
directly accused Mr Muller of lying in
this story.
Other news organisations were less
forthcoming with their reasons for not
using the word. 1 News said it would
rather keep its editorial conversations
private.
However, the potential for defamation
action is an ever-present factor in
media decision-making.
It influences the stories newsrooms
choose to cover and the way their
reports are presented.
Threat to freedom
Wellington lawyer Graeme Edgeler
told Mediawatch in April that defamation
laws are among the greatest threats
to freedom of speech in New Zealand.
He said that they do not give enough
protection to “simple opinion” and put
too much emphasis on maintaining
powerful people’s reputations - at the
expense of free speech.
It is unlikely it would have made a
difference if more media outlets had
accused Muller of lying.
The National Leader tendered his
resignation on Tuesday.
But the reasoning behind their
reporting may still be significant.
If news organisations did not want to
make a call because they did not want
to appear partisan, or out of genuine
doubt, that is at least an arguable
position.
But if the threat of defamation
loomed large in their decision-making,
it may be worth questioning whether
that law is serving as intended.
Instead of protecting the right to free
speech, could our laws be making liars
of our media?
Hayden Donnell is Mediawatch Producer at
Radio New Zealand. The above article and
pictures have been published under a Special
Agreement with www.rnz.co.nz
Minister was untenable as it opened up
allegations of improperly using his office.
I have lost confidence in him,” Ms Ardern
added.
Ms Ardern said that she had to inform
the Governor General of the decision and
withdraw his ministerial warrant and
hence it took several hours to make her
decision effective.
Mr Lees-Galloway returned to his home
in Palmerston North and announced that
he would not contest in the general election
on September 19, 2020.
He said that he accepted the decision of
the Prime Minister.
“I have acted completely inappropriately
in my position and cannot continue as a
Minister. I have apologised to my family for
letting them down. Please appreciate their
privacy. I also apologise to anyone who has
been hurt by my actions,” he said in the
Statement.