Has anyone in the NZ Government decried the astonishing abuse of power the Australian Government have committed against journalism in the last 24 hours?

By
Martyn Bradbury
-
8
10

ABC’s Sydney headquarters raided by Australian federal police

AFP officers have raided the ABC’s Ultimo headquarters over reporting from 2017 looking into the clandestine operations of Australian special forces in Afghanistan. ABC news presenter Joe O’Brien was live on air as the the AFP entered the building. ‘There’s a raid happening right here at the ABC … just 100 metres or so that way,’ he said to camera while pointing over his shoulder. The ABC warrant names the broadcaster’s national reporting team reporters Dan Oakes and Sam Clark, as well as ABC news boss Gaven Morris. The raid on the national broadcaster comes less than 24 hours after the AFP served News Corp journalist Annika Smethurst a warrant to search her Canberra home, phone and computer, 14 months after she published a story over a top-secret proposal to expand the nation’s domestic surveillance agency’s capabilities

Has anyone in the NZ Government decried the astonishing abuse of power the Australian Government have committed against journalism in the last 24 hours?

Of course not.

Why?

Because this extraordinary suffocation of journalism is directly connected to the incredible work the ABC did exposing Australian war crimes in Afghanistan and the NZ Government sure as Christ won’t be criticising this abuse of power by the Australian Government when we are currently holding a white wash inquiry into our own war crimes in Afghanistan.

Jacinda will criticise Australia for its treatment of NZers and will embarrass them rightfully for their appalling refugee policy but won’t criticise their attack on the Fourth Estate in case it reminds people we have our own war crimes to answer for.

The NZ Government must make a stand for the importance of journalism in holding Governments to account even if it highlights our own war crimes.

While we are at it, offer Julian Assange immunity here in NZ.

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8 COMMENTS

  1. We’ve had attitudes toward media and specifically Julian Assange for years now. Perhaps it’s casting shade on anti democratic practices against Journalism.

  3. There seems to be a general war on any journalism with integrity at the moment. We let Julian slide under the bus without any fuss and it just gets quicker and easier. UN Special Rapporteur on torture Nils Melzer has made a report that is unequivocal about the nature of the harassment and persecution and the level of bias against this man. Interviews conducted by the BBC and Sky remain unaired and when he also gives interviews to RT gets smeared as a puppet of the “Kremlin’s premier propaganda network — yes, the propaganda network of the state that shoots journalists in the face — to discuss Julian Assange’s ‘torture” as though somehow the UN doesn’t include Russia?? Its down the rabbit hole we go. The beacons that show us the right path are becoming clearer though. Attitudes to Assange and his plight are one of a few clear indicators of which side you fall.
    https://medium.com/@caityjohnstone/bbc-sky-news-have-hidden-their-interviews-with-un-expert-on-the-torture-of-assange-4cb155aaf313

  4. If it is true journalism then i t is a disgrace. If it it is journalism disguised as anti anything left wing government, like Hosking, Tevett, Younng atc espouse , then they have none of my sympathy.

  5. Another one of Morrison’s miracles. I doubt Old Naughty Winston will do anything about Aussie journalistic freedoms except back any coalition press release on the matter (ironically). Consecutive NZ governments have been so prostrated and gutless that Aussie migrants to NZ get all the benefits of citizens but this doesn’t hold for Kiwis abroad. A lack of simple reciprocity because of trade blackmail. What happened to treating others as you would like to be treated? The Aussie war logs look to be as foul smelling as those revealed in the book ‘Hit and Run’, as they do with the Wikileaks war logs and on it goes. What happened to living by the sword, dying by the sword?

  6. The New York Times ran a story with this headline

    Australia May Well Be the World’s Most Secretive Democracy (Damien Cave June 5).

    It was entirely cynical that the police raids occured while the PM was out of the country.

  7. The comparative issue is not the investigation of military action in Afghanistan, but with police actions against journalists covering the matter – here it was Hager.

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