Reporting shortages & petrol panic, privacy v the right to speak out

Reporting shortages without prompting petrol panic. Also: a social media post about the Labour Party leader ended up as headline news - in spite of denials and no-one knowing what’s really true. Does the right to tell a story override others’ right to privacy - or the public interest?

Read more about this episode of Mediawatch on the RNZ website

In this episode:

00:50 How the media reacted to the prospect of fuel shortages and the possibility of heavy measures to manage them, and rekindling memories of carless days.

11:00 Newsroom Pro editor Jonathan Milne on reporting shortages without prompting panic - and the bigger picture of our oil dependence and the reality of energy supplies.

17:05 Damaging personal allegations about Labour leader Chris Hipkins spread widely in social media after a single post by his former partner, creating a dilemma for news media.

22:03 Media law expert Nicole Moreham on the legal limits on the right to tell your own story when it clashes with the privacy rights of others, defamation and the public interest.

Guests: Nicole Moreham, professor of law at Victoria University of Wellington; Jonathan Milne, editor of Newsroom Pro.

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Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details