Does Anyone Really Care About Not Ridiculing Parliament?

Once again, the MP's of New Zealand have gotten their knickers in a twist over the new bill banning media from denigrating members of parliament. Question for them: does anybody care?

Australia has had the same bill in place in their delightfully ugly looking senate for over a decade now. As usual, members of the media still denigrate and ridicule parliament members over their frequently stupid behaviour. Only occasionally does the media get prosecuted-after all, it's a useless law, not exactly like murdering or raping someone.

But more importantly, the bill is a disruption to our right to free speech, and our right to know what parliament is doing (or not doing). Freedom of unrestricted media access in parliament is vital for a free and peaceful society. The new law is only going to degrade freedom in NZ, and the outlook of the world about New Zealand.