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Free Speech

Acting to protect Free speech

Beth Houlbrooke ACT Deputy Leader / Vice President FREE SPEECH The number of people losing their minds left, right and centre this week about David’s free speech comments has shown precisely why trying to define hate speech is completely subjective, impossible to define, and impractical to enforce. Any attempt to

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“Zip it, stupid!”

“Zip it, stupid!”

How do you feel about the government passing a law to give police and media control over what you say or post on social media? Pretty soon it will be illegal to say and write anything that anybody considers offensive. No lines will be drawn in the sand, no guidelines

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Qu’est-ce que ça veut dire? – (What does it mean?)

Qu’est-ce que ça veut dire? – (What does it mean?)

Aunty Helen’s talking parrot has flown home to perch, no doubt replete with some new and clever French phrases to show off, and happy with her strut upon the ‘World’ stage; À chaque fou plaît sa marotte. (Every fool is happy in their own folly). Now that she’s

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MagicTalk working group discuss police visits

MagicTalk working group discuss police visits

This is from the Friday working group on MagicTalk radio.  I figured I might as well get this up as a followup to the last couple of videos concerning New Zealand police officers checking in on citizens based on their online postings. I reckon it’s good for people to

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White supremacists running wild at Auckland U.

White supremacists running wild at Auckland U.

Shock! Horror! White supremacists are rampant at Auckland University. How do we know? Because the university’s Students’ Association says so. But the fascist Vice Chancellor is denying it, which of course is proof that it’s true. quote. Auckland University’s Vice Chancellor maintains students’ claims of a growing

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Media Ethics 101

Media Ethics 101

Good morning; Class. Welcome to Media Ethics.101, where today we will be discussing hate-speech which is a very important topic given nice Mr Little’s crusade to ensure publishing unkind things in the future will get people in a lot more trouble than before. In today’s example we

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When hate speech is dangerous speech

When hate speech is dangerous speech

The terror attack on Christchurch has ignited the debate about hate speech and censorship. Quote. The terrorist attacks on two Christchurch mosques, in which 50 people were killed, have brought questions of whether New Zealand is doing enough to legislate against racial and religiously-motivated attacks to the fore. For those

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Why Golriz Ghahraman should not be the guardian of our speech

By Juliet Moses, an Auckland-based lawyer First published on Shalom.Kiwi April 28, 2019 Republished with permission For a first-time list MP who made it into parliament by the skin of her teeth, and is in a minor party that maybe is or isn?t in government (depending on what

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Our journey towards an Orwellian Police state

Our journey towards an Orwellian Police state

Lindsay Perigo believes that New Zealand has become an Orwellian Police state. I don’t think that we are there yet, but we are certainly well on our way. We are following in the footsteps of countries like the UK who now criminalise little old ladies for liking or sharing

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Equal citizenship is not hate-speech

Equal citizenship is not hate-speech

Hobson’s Pledge Trust hobsonspledge.nz Banning Don Brash from a university is one thing but suggesting that advocacy of arguments made by New Zealanders such as him should be made illegal is a whole lot worse. It was precisely these sorts of threats that sparked the creation of the

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