July 29, 2007
Satire, ridicule or denigration
Take comfort Bermudians, in the knowledge that our Government is not alone in being unable to see the humour in what they do.
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 rules apply any to broadcasts or rebroadcasts in any medium.
They also ban the use of such footage for "political advertising or election campaigning", except with the permission of all members shown.
The new broadcasting regime coincides with the introduction of Parliament's own continuous in-house TV feed, which will be made available to broadcasters.
At least they have a TV feed. Let's hope our guys don't get any ideas or Peter Woolcock loses his livelihood.
Here's The Daily Show's take on it:
