On August 25th, a Judge in New Zealand made the unusual move of banning the names of two murder suspects from being used online while allowing their use in the traditional media. In protest I’m asking bloggers around the world to join me in posting these names - bypassing the New Zealand court order and showing the Judge the true power of the internet!

To join in, simply post the names of these two men on your blog, Myspace, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and any other site you can to get these names out there. Feel free to link back to this page, but by no means do you have to.

And a note: if you live in, or are subject to the laws of, New Zealand, please don’t post - I don’t want people getting in trouble.

Guess What? Pandazing is written by an American, hosted in the United States, and subject ONLY to the jurisdiction and laws of the United States of America.

As such, those crazy judges in New Zealand have no power over me. Do you know what that means? I get to publish names online!

In a purposeful and direct violation of a recent court order in New Zealand, I’m proudly posting the names Nathan Tuiti Reo Mutunga Williams and Daniel Bobby Tumata online! And guess what? There is absolutely nothing anyone can do about it!

A photo of the men from the New Zealand Herald. Williams is at left and Tumata in the center.

You may ask why I’m posting their names, why I’m trying to break a New Zealand court order, why I’m making a bit of a fool of myself. Well, the answer is simple: I am a staunch supporter of free speech and cannot stand the prevalence of pointless and suppressive limitations on speech, especially on the internet.

Yes, it’s not really any of my business, but as a freedom loving citizen of the United States, is becomes my duty to stand up for the freedom of speech and the press for people around the world. As such, I wish all New Zealanders the best of luck in getting this oppressive ban lifted as soon as possible.

-Andy

P.S. More information, including links and quotes from ‘banned’ articles, after the jump!

A bit more from the The New Zealand Herald:

A judge yesterday took the unusual step of preventing the names and images of two men accused of murder from being reported on the internet.

The two men — Nathan Tuiti Reo Mutunga Williams, 23, and Daniel Bobby Tumata, 22 — appeared before Judge David Harvey in the Manukau District Court charged in relation to the murder of Weymouth 14-year-old John Hapeta.

Judge Harvey granted applications that allowed the media to photograph and film the pair and report their names. But in an unprecedented move he ordered that the information must not be placed on the internet.

Online publications such as nzherald.co.nz were prevented from publishing the names, and other media outlets were told their websites couldn’t carry the details.

-Andrew Koubaridis, The New Zealand Herald, Print Edition, August 26th, 2008

For more inforamtion on the ban, check out http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10528866.

You can read the original print articles online at: http://www.pressdisplay.com/pressdisplay/showlink.aspx?bookmarkid=V785FENTBGB1&linki d=a5583263-f810-4f7e-a4a3-980f156b83d1&pdaffid=cImi%2fqnnWpmZvQcOu0u5SA%3d%3d

This entry was posted on Monday, August 25th, 2008 at 4:12 pm and is filed under Free Speech, Internet, Law, Mainstream Media, Photo, Technology, World. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.