New Zealand

In New Zealand, reforms to measures criminalising hate speech have been debated and reviewed since 2019, without agreement on government action being achieved. Public controversies erupted around the prominent case of Wall v Fairfax [2018] 2 NZLR 471. Mass media have played an important role reporting on the attack on two mosques by a lone gunman in Christchurch in 2019, and on the Royal Commission that investigated the incident and New Zealand’s hate speech laws afterwards. Within the general population, public opinion sharply disagrees about bans on hate speech, polarising around the safety of religious and other diverse groups and the need to protect freedom of expression. Currently no new hate speech laws are proposed.