Key made up nonsense about what S&P said about a Labour government, and was publicly humiliated when S&P fronted up and said that it wasn’t true.
Now history repeats. 3 News reports that a lawyer representing victims of the News of the World phone hacking scandal says that Key’s comparing the recorded conversation with Banks to the phone hacking scandal is a “cheap shot”. Ouch.
News of the World victims’ lawyer calls for release of teapot tape
A lawyer representing victims of the News of the World phone hacking scandal has weighed into New Zealand’s ‘teapot tape’ debate, defending the secret recording as “good journalism”.
Mark Lewis represents the family of murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler along with others who claim their phones were hacked by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp.
He says the recorded conversation between Prime Minister John Key and ACT candidate John Banks should be made public. “There is a difference between the News of the World hacking into someone’s phone to find out private information and seemingly – whether accidental or on purpose – effectively a journalist investigating some political statement,” he says.
“That’s something that is in the public interest and sounds like it should be reported without the unfavourable comparison to what was clearly a criminal act.” …
He says Mr Key’s comparison to News of the World tactics was a “cheap shot” with little relevance to the British scandal.
An accurate parallel, he says, was former Prime Minister Gordon Brown who was inadvertently picked up on the campaign trail by a Sky News microphone describing a woman as “bigoted”. “[He] carried on talking without realising he was still wired up to a microphone and saying something that might or might not have cost him the election.” Rather than filing a police complaint, Mr Brown apologised to the woman and her family.
Mr Lewis says under English law the release of the tea tape would be very unlikely to lead to a prosecution. In fact he says the police “wouldn’t bother to open a file”. …
That’s some pretty good journalism from 3 News to follow up that angle. And it’s another big hit to Key’s credibility. How’s he going to justify gagging the media now?
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