Power lawyer Linda Clark has been receiving profile appointments of late, with three appointments in the last two months, including one to the TVNZ board.
Also appointed to the TVNZ board is the former CEO of Clark’s firm, Dentons Kensington Swan, Alastair Carruthers. Carruthers was also the former CEO at Chapman Tripp.
Carruthers’s appointment stirred issues of conflict of interest for the experienced director.
Linda Clark has recently been appointed to review the issues arising at the Gore District Council and to undertake a review of Radio New Zealand’s systems following the embarrassing disclosure that a pro-Russian, anti-Israel slant had been inserted into RNZ stories.
The RNZ review is also being handled by former Simpson Grierson partner Willy Akel. Akel recently sued LawFuel publisher John Bowie on instructions from his former firm in a defamation claim from Russian oligarch Sergey Grishin. Grishin died unexpectedly earlier this year.
Former RNZ director Sir Robert Jones wrote in his blog that the RNZ inquiry was a waste of money.
“The creation of an expensive three person panel headed by a purported media law expert Willy Akel with Linda Clark and an Australian from ABC News to “review RNZ’s editorial processes” is a totally unnecessary cost to the taxpayers.”
