$35,000 apology for Laws' attack on parents

Wanganui Mayor Michael Laws. Photo / Wanganui Chronicle

The grieving parents of a boy killed in a trailbike accident will receive $35,000 in costs and damages for offensive comments radio host Michael Laws made on air.

An apology is also expected to be made to Heather and Stuart Fowlie on RadioLive on Sunday.

The Paeroa couple's 11-year-old son, Blake, was killed when hit by an oncoming car as he turned into their driveway on February 21.

It was initially reported as a quad-bike death and Laws - who is also Mayor of Wanganui - berated the Fowlies on his programme that week for letting Blake ride.

Last night, Mrs Fowlie said she was relieved by the planned action, but nothing would ever bring Blake back.

"But [at least] it's made someone accountable for what was said," she said. "They can't just go round saying stuff about people when they don't know the facts ... I mean, it's not only us, it's anyone who comes into [Laws'] firing line, is it?"

Mrs Fowlie said she and her husband had been told by their lawyer that a payout of $20,000 in damages and $15,000 for legal costs was on its way from Laws and RadioLive's parent company, MediaWorks.

"But it's the apology that's the important thing," she said.

"Money made no difference. It's not going to bring our son back. We'd dearly like it to ... If there's someone out there that wants to put their hands up and trade places, then that's fine by me too."

Mrs Fowlie said Sunday's on-air statement on RadioLive would be a fairly brief retraction.

"It mainly says that he made comments in regards to us and that it was inaccurate and unfair and that Michael Laws and RadioLive acknowledge that it was grossly insensitive to make those comments and they withdraw the comments and unreservedly apologise."

Last night, Laws told the Herald that he had "nothing to say" about the settlement.

In the wake of his on-air tirade, Laws blamed the media and police for incorrectly reporting that Blake's death had happened on a quad bike.

He said that had he known the boy had been killed on a two-wheeled farmbike, "I doubt very much I would have made those comments".

In April, Laws told the Herald that some comments had been "quoted out of context" and had been offered as "one extreme end of opinion".

At the time, he said he would be happy to sit down with the Fowlie family to talk about the matter, and if any offence had been taken, "perhaps an apology may well be due".

Laws' other BSA complaints

Laws was criticised by the Broadcasting Standards Authority after he condemned the Fire Service's national commander and a colleague for comments they made after a Mangere house fire in which four children died.

Laws accused the men of using "dead little Polynesian kiddies as a marketing tool" and described them as "idiots", "morons", "loathsome" and "cocks" in January, 2009.

The authority found Laws breached the standard of fairness and said his comments amounted to "sustained personal abuse".

In 2006, Laws described the Tongan King Tupou IV, who had recently died, as a "fat brown slug".

A complaint was made to the BSA which was not upheld.

In July, 2004, Laws launched an attack on the Exclusive Brethren, calling them "mad, ignorant, bad neighbours, and probable child abusers, who should be bred out of the human race".

Terms used during the show on the now defunct Radio Pacific talkback included "nutter sect", "potty", "dangerous little buggers" and "strange and weird beasties".

One caller said Exclusive Brethren members "even [commit] incest", and that they justified it on the basis of certain passages of the Bible.

The complainants to the BSA said the broadcast was inaccurate, unbalanced, unfair, degrading, defamatory and discriminatory.

The BSA ruled Laws had breached fairness, denigration and discrimination principles.

- With NZHERALD STAFF