The media coverage of Papatoetoe Voting Controversy and the issue of Name Suppression

The whole Papatoetoe voting controversy has again brought into forefront the issue of name suppression. The right of those arrested to request the court for name suppression is not the issue here but whether it serves any purpose when the people in the coomunity claim to know the names of the "perpetrators" (either by some form of  "insider" knowledge or by rumour) or when some aspects of their identity (their race, ethnicity, dress, headgear etc.) give the game away. And sometime the supporters outside or inside the court room whose faces appear on TV also help identify the people whose faces have been obscured by technical means to protect their identity.

In this particular case, the whole Indian community in South Auckland claims to "know" who they are and is abuzz with conjecture about what next? The issue here is that name suppression as a tool of identity protection in sub-judice matters involving certain groups of people is a complex issue and media needs to think about how it should cover such news without breaching court orders. For one they could think about better technical modalities of identity obfuscation for people whose dress might be diffrent (or people who are Non-Kiwi in Paul Henry's sense). To be fair, in this case I would have liked if TV coverage did not show people's homes and businesses as well.


Media coverage:
TVNZ - Court appearances over alleged voting scam
TV3 Voter scam gives Banks much-needed ammo 

- Baljit Grewal, PhD