03/02/2020 Slater v Blomfield [2014] NZHC 2221; [2014] 3 NZLR 835 (12 September 2014) Introduction [1] The appellant, Cameron Slater, is being sued for defamation in the Manukau District Court by the respondent, Matthew Blomfield. There are two matters arising in this Court. First, there is an appeal against a decision of Judge Blackie declining to extend to Mr Slater the protection given by s 68(1) of the Evidence Act 2006 to journalists from being compelled to disclose the identity of informants.1 An aspect of this appeal is a challenge to Judge Blackie’s decision that r 8.46 of the High Court Rules did not apply and that interrogatories should have been allowed. The second matter is an originating application to this Court filed by Mr Blomfield after the filing of the appeal, as a back-up position, seeking an order under s 68(2) of the Evidence Act that s 68(1) not apply should he be unsuccessful in opposing the appeal relating to s 68(1). [2] Both parties in this Court were originally unrepresented. Mr Miles QC was appointed amicus curiae. By the time of the hearing Mr Blomfield had briefed Mr Karam who appeared for him, and Mr Slater remained self-represented. Mr Miles presented a wide ranging submission to assist the Court. [3] Recently, some time after the hearing, Mr Blomfield has sought to produce further evidence, arising from the publication of the book Dirty Politics by Nicky Hager, and various email exchanges. [4] I have declined to grant leave for the introduction of this further evidence on the basis that it is hearsay or privileged.2 The defamation claim [5] In 2012, Mr Slater ran and administrated the blog website “Whale Oil” under the name www.whaleoil.co.nz (Whale Oil). Mr Blomfield had provided marketing services to Hells Pizza until 2008 and had been a director of a company Hell Zenjiro Ltd (in liquidation), which had owned several outlets of the Hells Pizza chain. That company went into liquidation on 9 April 2008 and was struck off the Companies Register on 6 September 2013. Mr Blomfield was adjudicated a bankrupt in 2010 and an order was made prohibiting him from being a director of a company. He has since been discharged from bankruptcy. [6] Hells Pizza had an association with a charity known as “KidsCan”. On 3 May 2012 Mr Slater wrote and published on his Whale Oil website a blog post entitled “Who really ripped off KidsCan?”. It contained a number of statements that Mr Blomfield claims were defamatory of him. On the same day Mr Slater wrote another blog on the Whale Oil website entitled “Knowing me, knowing you – Matt Blomfield”. In that story he made a number of statements about Mr Blomfield. Between 3 May 2012 and 6 June 2012, Mr Slater wrote and published on his website 13 articles that referred to Mr Blomfield. [7] Mr Blomfield claims that these articles allege that he had conspired to steal charitable funds and was alleged to be a thief, as well as dishonest, dishonourable, a party to fraud, involved in criminal conspiracy, bribery, deceit, perjury, conversion, the laying of false complaints, drug dealing and making pornography. He was also accused of being a psychopath, a criminal, a thief and a “cock smoker”. www.nzlii.org/nz/cases/NZHC/2014/2221.html 3/30