SoylentNews

hemocyanin [soylentnews.org] writes:

New Zealand has banned possession of Tarrant's manifesto and it is mentioned that possessing the manifesto is a crime [usatoday.com]. None of the articles I read noted what the penalties are for possession, so I looked up the law referenced in the article above, the "Films, Videos & Publications Classification Act 1993 [legislation.govt.nz]". The maximum penalties are pretty staggering if I have these figured right:

• Mere possession without knowledge: $2000 fine for a person; corporate offenders $5k fine [legislation.govt.nz]
• Mere possession with knowledge: 10 years in jail, $50k fine; corporate offenders $100k fine [legislation.govt.nz]
• Distributes without knowledge (the "strict liability" part): $3000 fine, corporate offenders $10k fine [legislation.govt.nz]
• Possession with the intent to share: 14 years in jail; corporate offenders $200k fine [legislation.govt.nz]

New Zealand does have a Bill of Rights of sorts, but it is merely a statute rather than a superseding law -- in other words, it's just fluff because typically, specific statutes prevail over general statutes [colorado.gov] and so a later enacted censorship law is going to trump a general 1A type "guarantee" of the freedom of expression. Worse, the NZ Bill of Rights has a built-in neutering provision:

Section 4 specifically denies the Act any supremacy over other legislation. The section states that Courts looking at cases under the Act cannot implicitly repeal or revoke, or make invalid or ineffective, or decline to apply any provision of any statute made by parliament, whether before or after the Act was passed because it is inconsistent with any provision of this Bill of Rights.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Zealand_Bill_of_Rights_Act_1990 [wikipedia.org]

Original Submission