NZ POLITICS DAILY: The power of the state to punish media

Is political debate being stymied during this election campaign? Obviously to have a meaningful parliamentary election there’s the need for an actual discussion to occur about the different political party options. But how much real debate do we really get?

There are all sorts of factors that could be seen to constrain political activity in modern elections: from the lacklustre political parties through to a superficial media, and perhaps also the existence of a world cup tournament dominating our lives.

Sometimes it seems possible the state itself might be adding to the constraints on political activity and discussion. That was certainly one of the problems with the Electoral Finance Act 2007 – which during the last election campaign the Electoral Commission declared was having a "chilling effect on the extent and type of participation in political and campaign activity."

But to what extent are the new electoral laws doing a better job? This is yet to be seen. But there’s certainly a significant amount of arguing over the legality or otherwise of various election billboards, placards, newspaper advertisements, and even radio shows. The saga over John Key’s Radio Live show might have shown how unwise both the station and the prime minister were in undertaking that venture, but it also hinted at the potentially stifling role that electoral laws can play in proscribing what is legal.

This was brought home to me again today when in organising a political meeting on campus – where I was going to interview Green MP Catherine Delahunty – a local journalist declined my invitation to attend on the basis that his media organisation was not covering such events in case they fell foul of electoral law for not providing balance by including other candidates in their reporting.

And then today, parliament’s Speaker issued a chilling sanction against New Zealand Herald gallery journalists, in which they would be banned from reporting from parliament for 10 days – see: Kevin Norquay’s Parliament media ban over photo sparks ire. Although the Herald later reported the Partial backdown on parliament's Herald ban, the incident brought into question the power of the state to punish the media in a way that would stymie political information.

Another area where free political expression appears to be under threat is in the right of tenants to erect election advertising on their rental properties – see the Manawatu Standard’s editorial: Politics behind tenancy dispute.

In terms of today’s meeting with Green MP Catherine Delahunty, the lack of journalists present hopefully won’t matter. The meeting was part of a weekly series of Conversations with Politicians that I have organised at the University of Otago.

The events are filmed in front of a studio audience, and live-streamed on the internet, bypassing the mainstream media. Eventually, all the interviews, which so far have included Hone Harawira, Annette King, and Winston Peters, will eventually be available as podcasts to download from iTunes, but in the meantime you can also watch them on YouTube here. And to keep up with the series, some of the politics students who help organise Vote Chat also run a Facebook “Vote Chat 2011” page.

Of course, as with other social media, much of this will have to be taken down or ‘frozen’ for election day so as to infringe electoral laws on the day of polling. So it seems that the electoral laws will continue to have all sorts of potentially stymying affects on politics.

The most interesting aspect of our discussion with Catherine Delahunty was about the possibility of future Green-National coalition. She clearly expressed her unease with the possibility and agreed, if after the election any Green MP was a minister in a National-led government, she would resign from parliament.

Incidentally, the online political futures market, iPredict, has just launched a new stock that attempts to measure the likelihood of the Greens being part of the next Government – see: ‘At least one Green Party MP to be a Minister in next government’. Currently the money shows a 13% chance of the Greens entering government – and hence almost a 13% chance of Delahunty resigning after the next election. See also: Ian Llewellyn’s It May Not Be Easy Being Green After Election Day.

Other items of note today include: David Farrar’s 49th Parliament comes to a close, Imperator Fish’s Saint John At Number 7?, Chris Trotter’s Fall-guy who goes over the top, John Pagani’s Who is getting a real wage rise?, No Right Turn’s Earning that reputation IX?, John Drinnan’s Consultant steps into Flannery's shoes, and Steve Braunias’ The Secret Diary Of ... Don Brash.

Today’s content:

Balcony protest – Herald ban

Claire Trevett (NZH): Partial backdown on Parliament's Herald ban

Claire Trevett (NZH): Herald Parliament ban 'concerning'

NZH: Speaker bans Herald for 10 days over photo in Parliament

Kevin Norquay (Stuff): Parliament media ban over photo sparks ire

Lloyd Burr (TV3): Herald ban sets 'extremely concerning precedent'

John Pagani: Not going with the mob on the Herald ban

Balcony protest – PM ‘throat slitting’ gesture

Lloyd Burr and Ally Mullord (TV3): VIDEO: Key makes hand gesture to throat

Patrick Gower (TV3): Key under fire over throat-slitting gesture