There have only been two times in my life that I’ve ever been star struck. The first was almost two decades ago when I was DJing at Channel Z and while the Foo Fighters were visiting the studio, I walked in on Dave Grohl at the urinal.
I played it cool, stood quietly, told him I worked at the station and thought he was a God, tried not to look at his penis and decided that was perhaps the greatest rock star moment I’d ever have.
I was wrong.
I was fortunate enough to meet Dita De Boni last week. I gushed how wonderful her columns were and that they are the only reason (other than David Fisher and anything Matt Nippert writes) I read the Herald.
She was very gracious and put up with me for 20 minutes.
Her column this week is another must read.
I was genuinely surprised by the lack of coverage Nicky Hager’s case received, it seems if Nicky wanted to have the NZ media pay attention to a Court case that cuts to the very heart of their profession, he would have needed to have been on Pluto.
Other than the odd brief story and the Evening Report’s excellent live coverage, De Boni’s column stands out as a must read…
But as the housing furore has continued to unfold, an example of problematic state intervention of the opposite sort is taking place in Wellington, where journalist Nicky Hager is seeking to have an unprecedented, 10-hour police raid on his home in Wellington made the subject of a judicial review.
He’s committed no offence, and yet, because police determined he knew the identity of someone who had, his home was extensively searched and his highly sensitive work tools removed – something that should require precise justification, but didn’t. To quote Hager’s legal counsel, “this is as clear and unambiguous a case of an illegal search as is ever likely to come before the courts”.
It absolutely stretches the bounds of credulity to imagine that this case has nothing to do with bad blood created by the publication of Dirty Politics, which used information detailing a toxic dependency on smear campaigns by people of power in this country (which continue).
…this story is about abuse of Police power for political ends. The fact that the Police contacted his banks and damaged his credit rating, the fact that they seemed more interested in appeasing Cameron Slater and the National Party than catching a hacker and the fact that the Police breached their word and shouldn’t have been trying this on in the first place seems to have been ignored by most mainstream media.
The problem is that many mainstream media outlets prior to the publication of Dirty Politics all worked with Slater, the one thing this chart misses…
…is all the mainstream enablers who allowed Slater to have the reach and power he did. This inconvenient truth means anything relating to Nicky Hager is relegated to out of bounds by a media who still don’t want to front up to their own roles in the vicious poisoning of NZ politics since National gained power.
This blindspott is made more ironic when you consider that it is journalistic rights Hager is fighting for.
It’s not just the State of course, the Police have been using blackmail tactics to have companies hand over vast amounts of information with no judicial oversight at all under the guise of threatening these companies with legal action if they don’t comply…
Privacy watchdog moves to shed light on personal data
A plan to reveal the number of times agencies such as the police request and receive personal data from a range of companies has been applauded by Trade Me.The auction website and other companies that hand over information – often without a warrant or the knowledge of the customer – could now be asked to provide a record of requests to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner (OPC), which will publish a record.
Lawyers, privacy advocates and companies have concerns about the growth in government requests for company records and personal data.
Privacy Commissioner John Edwards said businesses increasingly hold a large amount of personal information that can be useful to the government’s law enforcement and national security activities.
…what is of course worse than these companies handing over your personal details to the cops without you even being told or them not fighting on your behalf for your privacy, is that once the Police make a request, these companies put a black mark against your credit rating!
While this is all happening, the Spooks of NZ are meeting for a secret conference…
Spy conference shrouded in secrecy despite calls for transparency
Despite calls from participants for more openness around our national security, an intelligence summit held in Wellington on Wednesday was closed to outsiders, including news media.The New Zealand Institute of Intelligence Professionals met today at Rydges Hotel in central Wellington for its annual conference with high-ranking government intelligence officials, cyber-security companies and experts discussing issues of public trust, confidence, privacy and intelligence.
…National have given these spy agencies vast new powers, huge budgets and mass surveillance loopholes with the kind of oversight that makes American Police shootings of black unarmed men look credible.
Two decades ago I stood next to Dave Grohl at the urinal and if I’d never retold that tale, no one would have been the wiser, now we have a mass surveillance state out of control and few voices brave enough in the media to challenge it.
Hi Martyn
Thanks very much for this – you are too kind. It was nice meeting you too. We actually were at Auckland University at the same time – you were a famous man on campus while I was a dorky, insecure BA student!
You are right about the Hager case not getting enough attention, but I think one issue is that journalism management don’t like “journalism issues” to become a feature of news too much.
That doesn’t explain, though, why more aren’t jumping up and down about this flagrant attack on the ability of journos to foster sources. Dare I say that it might be because, apart from the excellent journos you list here and a few others, investigative work is not a feature of most newsrooms any more.
Thanks again
Dita
Hi Dita,
Firstly, a big *ups* to the pieces you write for the Herald. Insightful and well-considered.
Secondly, whilst I can understand your comment that “journalism management don’t like “journalism issues” to become a feature of news too much”, that certainly didn’t stop the attention given to Tony Veitch when he assaulted (and practically crippled) his former girlfriend. The media were over that like a chicken pox rash.
The Bradley Ambrose case also comes to mind.
But yes, I concur that ” investigative work is not a feature of most newsrooms any more”. This is made worse by the “hollowing out” of newsrooms; the loss of experienced journalistic staff; over-working remaining journalistic staff; the setting up of “hubs”, etc.
Which makes some media outlets easy targets for manufactured stories, such as the Donghua Liu Affair I covered last year. The Herald was set up for that one – a fact highlighted by the silence from NZH management over questions of impropriety over their coverage of Liu’s claims; a MNinister’s involvement; fast-tracked OIA releases; and involvement by our “favourite” far-right blogger.
The Hager case is but one step away from the Bradley Ambrose case, where police raided various media offices.
It strikes me as highly ironic that the Fourth Estate fights for the notion of a “free press”, but adopts a submissive, supine position when faced with an attack on an investigative journalist.
I could quote Martin Niemöller’s famous statement, “First they came for…” and replace opposition political groups with journalists – but it’s become such a cliche by now.
Anyway, please keep up excellent writing. If you can make people think about things other than cooking shows, dancing with unknown ‘stars’, and home-improvement reality TV – then you’ve done a good thing.
Sorry Martyn I could try spelling your name correctly as above – it was spellcheck wot did it!
I noticed that Radio New Zealand had an article about the case where they reported a lot of what the crown had to say and a little bit at the bottom of the article from Hager’s side of the case. This is the same RNZ that is supposed to be too left wing for it’s own good!
With all due respects ,….that with the vast amounts of corruption and blatant rorting that’s been enabled by this symbiotic collective of both the National party and their allies aligned with a media that shows every sign of its collusion with the former….
I find it hard to believe in this age of modern communications that ‘Investigative work ‘ is no longer a feature of most newsrooms ….any longer….
Is it because they lack the training , are too desperate for their jobs or is it simply that too many have vested interests in keeping the status quo?
Because recent events in this country would certainly suggest that this is so.
The blatant and obvious skulduggery going on under this current govt would provide a goldmine for the likes of Glen Greenwald and such.
Yet what did the media do ?…cower away like usurped little gnomes when Greenwald was here …I was there at that town hall meeting…and to my right were quite a large contingent of media personal.
The material revealed that had been hidden from the NZ public – particularly by this govt – should have been explosive material to say the least -and should have been picked up ravenously by an alert and impartial media and hounded relentlessly to have hard answers and even harder questions being asked – irrespective of the general election.
In fact ,- in light of a general election – even MORE SO.
The fact that it wasn’t demonstrates other motives at play.
Those of compliancy , complicity and collusion.
And that is an appalling state of affairs for any democracy.
NB. this is in no way and indictment against Dita…she is one of only a small handful of journo’s who seem to have a grasp – and a conscience – of the issues that confront our country today…but when wieghed up against so many other journalists and writers it begs the question WHY …is there such a small amount of legitimate investigative reporting carried out in this country these days .
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