KEY POINTS:
The Electoral Commission has ruled that the live broadcast of a campaign-style speech by Helen Clark during her press conference to announce the election date did not break any electoral rules.
The Prime Minister's announcement of the election date on September 12 was preceded by a speech in which she laid out the gains Labour had made and introduced the message of "trust" that was to become the theme of Labour's election campaign.
It was broadcast live on both TV One and TV3, as well as Radio New Zealand, Radio Live and Newstalk ZB - and effectively gave Clark the first hit of the campaign. However, it riled some listeners enough to complain to the Electoral Commission.
The commission said although the content of the speech would normally be considered election advertising, in this case it was broadcast as a news programme which is exempt from election advertising restrictions.
The broadcasters were not told of the content of the speech in advance but had decided to go live because the press conference was to name the election date, which was considered newsworthy.
Under electoral laws, items that are published at the discretion of an editor or broadcast as part of a news or current affairs programme do not have the same restrictions as political advertising.
