Newspapers, news websites and their related multi-platform content, including video, currently fall under the umbrella of the Media Council, a voluntary self-regulatory body.<\/p>\n
Television and radio come under the BSA.<\/p>\n
Throw in the Office of Film and Literature Classification and legislation such as the Harmful Digital Communications Act, which is administered by Netsafe and the district court, and you have a canine\u2019s brunch \u2013 one notch away from a dog\u2019s breakfast.<\/p>\n
The BSA has claimed jurisdiction over The Platform, an online-only site, saying it will officially adjudicate a complaint after Plunket described M\u0101ori tikanga as \u201cmumbo jumbo\u201d.<\/p>\n
Goldsmith earlier told Media Insider that he would give firm direction on the media regulatory framework before the election, after further consultation with Act and New Zealand First.<\/p>\n
He would either scrap the BSA (which is what the coalition partners now want), maintain the status quo, or more clearly define the BSA\u2019s oversight.<\/p>\n
Former judge David Harvey. Photo \/ Jason Oxenham<\/p>\n
Dr David Harvey, a former long-serving district court judge who taught law and IT at the Auckland Law School for 18 years, says current regulation is fragmented among the four existing bodies with \u201coverlapping, misaligned and increasingly inadequate jurisdictions\u201d.<\/p>\n
Harvey, who prepared submissions on the BSA jurisdiction issue for another online site, Reality Check Radio, has produced a new paper, A Framework for Media Regulation in the Digital Age, and published it today.<\/p>\n
He says his proposal addresses two related challenges.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe first is the inadequacy of New Zealand\u2019s current online harm regulatory architecture, centred on the Harmful Digital Communications Act 2015, which was designed for interpersonal harmful communications rather than systemic platform regulation,\u201d he writes.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe second is the broader fragmentation of New Zealand\u2019s media regulatory landscape, which leaves significant gaps in coverage and creates inconsistencies that the digital convergence of media and communications has made increasingly apparent.\u201d<\/p>\n
He says a unified Media and Communications Authority would have three operational divisions: News Media Standards, Content Standards and Online Harm.<\/p>\n
The News Media Standards would cover journalistic accountability and editorial standards, and would incorporate existing Media Council and BSA news\/current affairs functions.<\/p>\n
Content Standards would cover professional non-news content, such as internet-only broadcasters, on-demand audiovisual, and streaming services with a New Zealand presence.<\/p>\n
The Online Harm division would cover a hybrid code-compliance and reactive-harm regulation of online platforms. It would incorporate and extend the HDCA framework.<\/p>\n
A fully independent Communications Tribunal would be established to consider unresolved complaints, with appeal to the High Court.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe framework\u2019s central commitments are: Freedom of expression as the default condition; harm, properly defined, as the threshold for regulatory intervention; strict separation between the state and the content of codes and standards; the use of industry self-regulation as the primary mechanism, backed by a credible regulatory backstop; and an independent adjudicative function vested in the Communications Tribunal,\u201d Harvey writes.<\/p>\n
The proposal should be understood in that light of what it was not attempting.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is not a proposal for censorship of online content or for state control over the press. Its foundational commitment throughout is to freedom of expression as the default condition of the New Zealand communications environment.\u201d<\/p>\n
Harvey has provided his paper to Goldsmith, Seymour and Peters as well as Jenny Marcroft, who is under-secretary to the Minister for Media and Communications.<\/p>\n
DAVID HARVEY\u2019S FULL PAPER:<\/p>\n
Editor-at-Large Shayne Currie is one of New Zealand\u2019s most experienced senior journalists and media leaders. He has held executive and senior editorial roles at NZME including Managing Editor, NZ Herald Editor and Herald on Sunday Editor and has a small shareholding in NZME.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On the Ryan Bridge Today show on nzherald.co.nz this morning, Media and Communications Minister Paul Goldsmith gave the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":374990,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[133828,95,1124,6326,3795,8555,19724,40623,266,31989,52329,2936,702,1073,6722,111,43,139,69,90,17357,14170,11422,195659,1361,223,61,1865,13026,1533,2963],"class_list":{"0":"post-374989","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-zealand","8":"tag-37yearold","9":"tag-and","10":"tag-authority","11":"tag-biggest","12":"tag-broadcasting","13":"tag-communications","14":"tag-given","15":"tag-goldsmith","16":"tag-government","17":"tag-im","18":"tag-indication","19":"tag-insider","20":"tag-it","21":"tag-media","22":"tag-minister","23":"tag-new-zealand","24":"tag-news","25":"tag-newzealand","26":"tag-nz","27":"tag-on","28":"tag-paul","29":"tag-scrap","30":"tag-standards","31":"tag-tempted","32":"tag-that","33":"tag-the","34":"tag-to","35":"tag-today","36":"tag-watchdog","37":"tag-will","38":"tag-zealands"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/374989","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=374989"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/374989\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/374990"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=374989"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=374989"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=374989"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}