Overkill

NewstalkZB reports:

Parliament Speaker Trevor Mallard is threatening to expel Press Gallery journalists if they take unauthorised photos of the Prime Minister or Clarke Gayford on their return next week.

Newstalk ZB Political editor Barry Soper says Mallard is promising that if his rules are breached, he will withdraw the offending journalist’s accreditation and penalise their employer.

Mallard says he wants to make Parliament more family friendly. He has posed in the Speaker’s chair holding an MP’s baby.

As an example, if the first couple happens to walk behind an interview being videoed with baby Neve, he expects that part of the interview to be deleted.

This seems like overkill.

Absolutely photos of Neve should not be published without the consent of her parents.

The PM has been careful to not publish photos of Neve’s face. We’re much the same with Benjamin. Since he was born, I think I’ve only once published a photo that shows his face.

So quite appropriate for the Speaker to say that you don’t publish anything showing Neve’s face.

But to do a dictate that media must delete accidental footage is over the top.

If media are doing an interview of someone on the bridge, and the PM with Neve walks through the backgound, the Speaker is saying the interview must be deleted.

One of the purposes of having a parliamentary press gallery is so they can interview politicians.

Surely all that is needed is that if they use the footage they either crop it or blur it to protect’s Neve’s privacy. But to say it must be deleted or you get expelled from the gallery is overkill to put it mildly.