Richard Harmon

They can be a real headache.

They can pursue what I would call trivial events too far and not have a realistic sense of what the day-to-day hurly-burly of news and current affairs is like.

But having said that...

I think they really are an important part of the trust system in New Zealand for people like David Seymour to say, well, there's the law.

If somebody's upset, they can sue the media for defamation.

Well, that's a joke.

Unless you've got $250,000 in your pocket, you're not suing anybody.

You're not getting anywhere.

I think the BSA was an outlet for the average person.

And yes, a lot of the complaints were trivial, but some of them weren't.

We've seen some decisions where the media has been wrong.

They've had to apologise or take a penalty.

And I think justice is seen to be done.

Now, to get rid of that just seems stupid, in my view.

particularly when it's a knee-jerk reaction, in my view, to Sean Plunkett and the platform really not liking the fact that they might come under the BSA's jurisdiction.

Wouldn't it have been better for the government to sit down and say, OK, how do we create a regime here that is fair and encompasses these other media, which are part of the media ecosystem?

No, they go...

Oh no, let's chuck it out.

Boom.

I don't think they've given it any thought.