NZ MPs Outlaw Satire of Parliament

mernil writes "New Zealand's Parliament has voted itself far-reaching powers to control satire and ridicule of MPs in Parliament, attracting a storm of media and academic criticism. The new standing orders, voted in last month, concern the use of images of Parliamentary debates, and make it a contempt of Parliament for broadcasters or anyone else to use footage of the chamber for 'satire, ridicule or denigration.' The new rules are actually more liberal than the previous ones, but the threat of felony contempt is new."

Re:Daily Show

[Don_dumb]

Well his show last Wednesday/Thursday certainly wouldn't as it attacked this very policy by insulting the New Zealand government using their footage.

Who is going to police it?

[marcovje]

(obligatory 1984 reference)

Who is going to police it? The newly set up Ministry of Truth?

In this case, perspective is useful.

[Futurepower(R)]

What New Zealanders say about themselves is often much stronger than anything Jon Stewart says. Stories about New Zealand on Slashdot all seem to give the impression that N.Z. is a country like the United States. Actually, only 4 million people live there, so it is more like a city in the U.S. than the U.S. itself.

Anyhow, apparently some New Zealanders think that N.Z. has an exaggerated self-importance. So they joke about their country. For example: Adult Sheep Finder [adultsheepfinder.com] "New Zealand's #1 Internet Dating Site". (The site is partly a reference to the fact that raising sheep is the main agricultural activity in New Zealand; although there are only 4 million people, there are 60 million sheep.)

I doubt the N.Z. parliament will stop "satire, ridicule or denigration". In fact, the idea is absurd. Remember, the story Alice in wonderland [wikipedia.org] was partly a parody [victorianweb.org] of the English king and queen, when saying negative things about the monarchy was illegal. That was in England, and it is sometimes said that New Zealanders are "more English than the English".

Are you sure this law is legal?

[iminplaya]

It sounds rather satirical itself. The mere mention of it could get you locked up.

Re:Most local New Zealand media sickens me

[nickgrieve]

Hear hear!

I have had to stop watching the 6pm news. All it does is make me angry, I end up exasperated near yelling at the screen "This is not news!!, of all thats going on in the world today,.. you give us fluff!"

Just to Godwin this thread...

[Hannah E. Davis]

I'm presently in the middle of reading an English translation of Mein Kampf. Earlier tonight, I got to the part where Hitler talks about the dangers of "freedom of the press" -- he rants at length about the need to control it completely, and to stop it from poisoning the state with lies and digging up dirt on even the most noble politicians.

Needless to say, while I am well aware that NZ can hardly be compared to Nazi Germany, I found this news quite disturbing.

The site linked is NSFW if your co-workers are ...

[Futurepower(R)]

I forgot to say that the linked web site is NSFW -- if your co-workers are sheep.

Also, the result of the N.Z. parliament making criticism illegal will be that the criticism becomes much, much worse. Tthe old rules were not followed, either. Quote from the article: "However, the old rules were frequently breached, as the media often used wider-angled shots or published photographs of MPs napping, reading comics, eating lollies, and in one notable case, giving another MP the finger."

One National Party News.

[Anonymous Coward]

Remember when we used to joke about TVNZ news as being "BBC One News" due to it being heavily Brit-oriented? How I miss those naive and innocent days! It all turned so sinister.

Ever since Prime Minister Helen Clark made the hideous error of criticising the NZ$800,000-per-year Saint Judy Bailey was paid by the state broadcaster for reading from a teleprompter and making 'News Faces', TVNZ has been out to get her. (And Labour out of power.)

The disgusting and overtly pro-National Party stance TVNZ took during the last election was unforgivable. They were in effect campaigning for them. And they are still doing it.

Big Money Corporate Media...gotta love it. Not.

Re:NZ is a state of Australia

[Remusti]

That is interesting, considering we became a seperate colony in 1840 (no longer administered as part of New South Wales).

Wikipedia tells me also that New Zealand decided against joining the Commonwealth of Australia in 1901, and instead changed from being a colony to a separate "dominion" in 1907, equal in status to Australia and Canada.

YouTube law

[oohshiny]

This sounds like a YouTube law. These politicians are scared of appearing in public with "macaca" and "tubes":

http://youtube.com/watch?v=r90z0PMnKwI [youtube.com]

http://youtube.com/watch?v=f99PcP0aFNE [youtube.com]

and the remixes...

http://youtube.com/watch?v=EtOoQFa5ug8 [youtube.com]

Well, one might say that sound bites are not a fair way of characterizing the entire work of a politician. I think they are right: with Stevens and Allen, the rotten attitudes seem to go far deeper.

Laws like this aren't going to be very effective, but these people are running scared.

Re:Most local New Zealand media sickens me

[michaelnz]

I'm an American who has been living in New Zealand nearly 4 years now. I watch a fair bit of television here and I can say have lived in both the states and here that New Zealand television news is many times better than American TV. There's a bit of fluff and the a few annoying personality driven pieces but compared to American local and national news it's amazingly well done. Both TVNZ and TV3 compete to have news that's informative and entertaining and generally they do well. Stories aren't limited to national concerns and international news is featured prominently, something that never happens in the states.

Things aren't as bad as they could be, trust me, we've got it good here compared to the states.

It may be influenced by recent BBC failures

[Flying pig]

Over here in the UK we have been finding out just how much our national broadcaster has been lying to us. In particular, how during the miners' strike in the 1980s the order of footage was reversed to suggest that miners had attacked police, when the exact opposite was the case (the police baton charged a picket line.) We are also finding out just how broadcasters and newspapers have been lying by association - deliberately waiting for a politician to, say, yawn and then using the picture to suggest that he was asleep during a debate. I am no fan of Bush but it is obvious that the US press does exactly the same, trying to get photos of him looking like a chimpanzee.

This is we the people being manipulated by professional liars. It seems to me that the NZ parliament has every right to demand that footage of its debates not be manipulated to suggest things that are not true.

Interestingly, a recent opinion poll in the UK suggested that younger people are less worried about media distortion of public events and people. I suggest this is a mistake. They should be. They have the least political power, the least share of the national wealth. Allowing people who are mostly rich, overentitled middle aged white males to foist lies on them by distorting apparent photographic footage suggests that, at the very least, compulsory reading of _1984_, the history of the 1920s in Russia and history of the 1930s in Germany should be considered.

Hmmmm.

[WindBourne]

I wonder if USA would allow a reporter or somebody to be extradited from here to NZ over this? It goes against the very grain that we use to stand for. But with us asking for other countries to send us those who have committed IP issues, would we hand stewart over if he continues to lampoon NZ?

Medicating the symptom

[ArhcAngel]

This is just another attempt to medicate the symptom (dissent) instead of addressing the disease (apathy, corruption, disillusionment) which is a MUCH bigger issue. I'll forgo the soap box but we as a world are heading for a Roman Empire type meltdown on a global scale if we don't start appreciating what we do have instead of whining about what we don't. The world will never be perfect but it's still pretty dang amazing.