The case has generated controversy in New Zealand over the way the police and intelligence services gathered evidence before the raid and won an apology to Mr Dotcom from the country's prime minister.
This is no easy task, particularly when the internet exposes cartoons to global scrutiny, as was the case in 2005 when the Danish newspaper Jyllens-Posten sparked controversyand demonstrations throughout in the Muslim world by printing a cartoon of the prophet Mohammed.
The case looks set to trigger a storm of controversy like the one over the separation of Gracie and Rosie Attard, whose fate had to be eventually decided by British judges.
In this case, the Times falls far short of that standard in its discussion of the controversy over shale gas and the extraction technique known as hydraulic fracturing, or fracking.