Satire still legal

The Herald reports:

A satirical song that poked fun at Prime Minister John Key was not an election advertisement or programme and it was wrong of the Electoral Commission to ban it, a High Court has ruled.

In a decision released today, Judge Clifford of the Wellington High Court found that the Planet Key song by soul and blues star Darren Watson was not election material.

Good. We need more satire.

Personally I think the Broadcasting Act should be changed so that the restrictions on election programmes should be lifted, so that parties and third parties can broadcast advertisements as they want – so log as within the total spending cap. Broadcasting as a medium should be on the same basis as print.

Andrew Geddis has a lengthy piece on the ruling, which is a good read for those interested.