Author: Gavin Ellis

Gavin Ellis is a media consultant, commentator and researcher. He holds a doctorate in political studies. A former editor-in-chief of the New Zealand Herald, he is the author of Trust Ownership and the Future of News: Media Moguls and White Knights (London, Palgrave) and Complacent Nation (Wellington, BWB Texts). His consultancy clients include media organisations and government ministries. His Tuesday Commentary on media matters appears weekly on his site www.whiteknightnews.com

Far-reaching consequences of cloaking this man’s past

New Zealand’s Supreme Court last week re-affirmed the absolute right to a fair trial. In the process it denied citizens another fundamental right in an attempt to hide the past from jurors.

The court handed down its decision in an appeal over a takedown order that required Herald publisher NZME and other media to remove all stories relating to the previous convictions and character of a man now serving his second open-ended sentence of preventive detention.

The takedown is now moot because Damon John Exley (pictured above) has already been convicted and sentenced in the case during which the take-down order was made and then successfully appealed by NZME. Exley (also known as John Douglas Willis) was granted leave to take the matter to the Supreme Court, which elected to continue the appeal because it “raised a point of public importance”.

That process meant a takedown order remained in force during his trial on charges of rape, assault with a weapon, and abduction while an escapee from Rimutaka Prison where he was already serving a term of preventive detention. However, the jury was aware of some of his past convictions because the Crown had been given leave to introduce a list in what is known as propensity evidence.

Last week the Supreme Court found in Exley’s favour and said the Court of Appeal had been wrong to quash the takedown order. It found that the was “a real risk to Mr Exley’s fair trial rights if the material was accessed by a juror”.

The judgement has far-reaching effects because it found the right to a fair trial is absolute and the test to be applied “does not involve the balancing of the right to a fair trial against other rights, including freedom of expression”. It overturns the previous two-step test that first assessed whether continued publication represented a real risk of prejudice to a fair trail, but which then asked whether a takedown order would be a reasonable limitation – set out in Section 5 of the Bill of Rights Act  – on the right to freedom of expression. That limitation requires that it be “demonstrably justified in a free and democratic society”. Continue reading “Far-reaching consequences of cloaking this man’s past” →

TVNZ’s digital war calls for urgent reinforcements

Like it or not, the Government must step up and help Television New Zealand compete in the fight for its life.

The state-owned broadcaster is in what military strategists would call a perilous situation: With weakened supply lines, it is facing enemies on both flanks and a pincer movement that could squeeze the life out of it.

On one flank it has Sky TV, which last week pulled off a brilliant tactical move in which it was effectively gifted the valuable brand equity that continues to reside in Three despite its financial woes.

On the other flank are streaming services which – in spite of fighting their own battle royal – take increasing numbers of viewers from traditional providers.

The pincer movement could place TVNZ in an existential crisis within an alarmingly short period of time Continue reading “TVNZ’s digital war calls for urgent reinforcements” →

Media in peril if Trump playbook falls open here

Observe carefully how American President Donald J. Trump systematically weakens the ability of journalists to hold him to account. He is creating a playbook for others to follow.

It would be easy to tut-tut, shake one’s head, and utter statements about “poor America”. Yes, the United States will be much the poorer through the actions of the most undemocratic president it its history. However, our concern should be driven as much by self-interest as concern for the good people in the country formerly known as Land of the Free.

Trump’s assault on media could be replicated in New Zealand. Perhaps not by our current government, but by the politicians we have yet to meet.

For that reason, we need to develop a Trump filter and ensure we develop safeguards that prevent the misuse of power we are seeing played out in Washington. The protections will need to be robust. Who would have imagined that the Constitution of the United States and the First Amendment would have proved impotent in the face of presidential assault?

Trump has employed multiple levers to weaken and intimidate his country’s news media: De-funding, withdrawal of accreditation, intimidation, and ‘lawfare’ (the use of legal strategies to harass and silence news media). Continue reading “Media in peril if Trump playbook falls open here” →

Six decades on, death knocks remain vivid memories

The hardest assignment faced by many journalists is the death knock, knowing that the face on the other side of the door will be streaked with grief at the loss of someone close.

Twice last week I was reminded of the strain of such assignments and the indelible memories they leave on reporters.

The first trigger was the Texas floods in which the bodies of 130 people have been recovered and a further 160 remain missing. Watching interviews with the families of victims was harrowing: Anguished faces and tremulous voices were interspersed with images of joyful eight-year-old girl campers and their pretty teenage counsellors. All gone.

The second was the front page of Saturday’s Waikato Times. It was devoted to a story about an 18-year-old apprentice jockey who died when his dirt bike and a car collided at a Hamilton intersection. In it, his mother spoke of a life of determination and promise cut tragically short. Reporter Avina Vidyadharan had clearly let the woman unburden her grief, speaking of her son’s life, attributes and achievements along with the premonition she had that he had died.

I needed no further reminders, but a Facebook post of a Guardian story of Palestinian children killed in Israeli airstrikes renewed images of the unutterable tragedy that has played out since the government of Benjamin Netanyahu exacted from innocent civilians an awful and unremitting revenge for the Hamas attack on an Israeli music festival last October. Those reporting it are confronted every day by grief at every level, none more so than the journalist covering the story of a doctor who lost nine of her 10 children.

I have vivid recollections of my own experiences as a reporter asking the bereaved to share personal and sometimes intimate recollections of someone suddenly removed from life. The one that is seared into my memory has been there for almost six decades. Continue reading “Six decades on, death knocks remain vivid memories” →