Rights, Responsibilities, and Regulation in the Digital Age

Publication of Submissions on the News Media Meets 'New Media': Rights, Responsibilities And Regulation in the Digital Age

Submissions on the Law Commission’s preliminary proposals for regulating the news media and addressing the problems of harmful speech in the digital era are now available on the Commission’s website (www.lawcom.govt.nz).

The Commission received more than 70 formal submissions on its paper, The News Media meets ‘new media’; rights, responsibilities and regulation in the digital age.

Many more contributed through online discussions, including forums hosted on current affairs blog sites Public Address, and Kiwiblog.

The project’s lead Commissioner, Professor John Burrows, said the Issues Paper had attracted many high calibre submissions from a wide range of new and traditional media organisations including Google and Facebook.

Professor Burrows said the level of engagement from New Zealand’s major news organisations was particularly encouraging and the Commission was interested to see a number of proposals coming forward from these organisations to address the regulatory gaps identified in the Commission’s report.

“We are interested to see that the Australian Government’s Convergence Review this week proposed a model for a single independent media regulator which is very close to our own.”

Alongside the proposals relating to the regulation of the news media, the Commission was also asked to look at whether the laws which deal with crimes such as harassment, intimidation, defamation, and breach of privacy are fit for purpose in the digital age.

The Commission was in the process of analysing all submissions and would undertake any further research required before finalising its proposals.

It would prepare a final report and recommendations for Government by the end of 2012.

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