A judge yesterday decided not to decide whether or not the ‘teapot tapes’ can be made public, for fear of interfering with the ongoing police investigation.
Canterbury University lecturer Ursula Cheer says while the stance is frustrating for the public and potentially means the tapes will not see the light of day before Saturday’s election, she was not surprised by the ruling.
“I did think beforehand that a judge would decide not to decide,” she says.
Ms Cheer says the reasons behind the judges reservations include not wanting to interfere with the police investigation, but also come down to a lack of sufficient evidence.
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“She talked about two aspects where she didn’t have enough evidence in front of her, and the first was in relation to what the parties intended when they held the teacup conversation,” she says.
The second issue was in relation to whether or not both parties could have expected the conversation to be overheard and recorded.
The judgement does not clear freelance cameraman Bradley Ambrose from prosecution – but nor does it mean the police can move in. For media, the judgement means status quo must be maintained and the tapes cannot be released yet.
“I suppose if you could look through the judgement and see if there was any hint that she was inclined to think that it wasn’t public then there might possibly be grounds for media to say ‘well it’s reasonable for us to suppose that this hasn’t been illegally obtained,’ but really when you look through the judgement, if anything, there’s an inclination the other way,” says Ms Cheer.
The police will continue their investigation and this may still involve searching several media outlets.
“There’s warrants being executed and media are obliged to comply with those, they don’t have to actually assist them in any way, but you do have to let police into your newsrooms,” says Ms Cheer.
Click ‘view video’ to watch the full interview.
3 News