Cigar Website off limits for Kiwis

By MICHAEL FOREMAN

The Ministry of Health has been accused of censoring the Internet by ordering an Auckland cigar shop to block New Zealanders from its Website.

While overseas surfers may freely browse the Havana House Cigars site, anyone trying to access the site from a New Zealand Internet account is barred.

The owner of Havana House, Anthony Hart, said he had been forced to block local users after the ministry hold him the Website was considered to be a tobacco advertisement under the Smokefree Environments Act 1990.

When Mr Hart said the Internet was an international medium and users could not be blocked selectively, the ministry disagreed.

Ministry official Sally Gilbert told him that she knew of other sites blocking New Zealand users and offered to put him in touch with a Web company that could arrange it.

Mr Hart's response has been to redirect local surfers to a page that invites them to contact the ministry "for an explanation as to why they are censoring the Internet."

Lawyer Paul Dale, who has handled Internet cases and is a cigar smoker, said that if the case did come to court "some fairly serious arguments would be raised."

But the ministry said it had sought legal advice before imposing the order. Senior analyst Matthew Allen said: "It's our job to balance freedom of expression and speech issues alongside the need to both implement the law and the need to prevent the promotion of tobacco."

Links

Ministry of Health

Havana House Cigars