NZ MPs Outlaw Satire of Parliament

mernil writes "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 new rules are actually more liberal than the previous ones, but the threat of felony contempt is new."

Comments

Huh?

[RAMMS EIN]

``make it a contempt of Parliament for broadcasters or anyone else to use footage of the chamber for 'satire, ridicule or denigration.''

Huh? I thought the whole point of Parliament was to be ridiculed and denigrated?

a sign of weakening democracy

[petes_PoV]

By coincidence, there was a programme on TV yesterday about the origins of democracy (in Athens, 400BC). One point that came across strongly was that when democracy is strong, states are willing to put up with more criticism.

As democracy weakens, states clamp down on their critics and introduce more extreme punishments for transgressors.

This sounds like a good example of this kind of action - sadly it seems to be getting more common across the world, not just in NZ.