New Zealand Law Society President Chris Moore  has called on media organisations to step back and consider if their coverage is harming the fundamental rights of New Zeleanders. He said that two developments in the past week  were 'testing the boundaries' of what was appropriate when it comes to reporting matters in the justice system. First was the publication of a newspaper poll about whether someone is awaiting sentence should be convicted and what sentence the judge should impose, followed by a television interview with the complainant in the Malaysian diplomat case. He said both of these cases demonstrate that there may be 'harmful interference' with the process of determining guilt.

Testing the boundaries

Mr Moore said in a statement: 'It needs to be said that the Law Society is not in any way opposed to the right of the media to report on matters of public interest. Nor are we opposed to any comment after a court decision has been made. What is worrying is that we may be seeing a testing of the boundaries and some time soon the limits could be exceeded, with a resulting miscarriage of of justice.'