So even if it was said outside of parliamentary privilege, Winston could just say it's his opinion. But the media could get in trouble for reporting he said it because it's not their opinion!

I'm sure it's structured this way for a reason, after all, rules are written in blood, but to an outsider it seems like it would prevent a lot of political news being published!

Now how come they can print that Julie Anne Genter yelled at a florist? They only have the florist's word. Its that enough to prove truth? We only have Winston's word about the other guy.

[–] Xcf456 2 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Yeah I can see the intent of it and I think it does have merit, but access to the courts is expensive and therefore inequitable so it is open to 'lawfare' or abuse by powerful people, so you can have a chilling effect on media.

They'll print about JAG because they don't see a risk of being taken for defamation I suppose? Perhaps if she threatened it it might be a different story. But again I guess they'll weigh up their defence as part of it. This is a lot of what lawyers employed by media agencies do I guess.

[–] Dave 1 points 6 months ago

Yeah it's interesting stuff. On one hand the media needs to have a high level of scrutiny so we can trust it. On the other hand we are getting a biased view because some are blocking articles while others aren't.

[–] hanrahan@slrpnk.net 2 points 6 months ago

So even if it was said outside of parliamentary privilege, Winston could just say it's his opinion

Not sure it works that way, you have to assert it's your opion when you say it.