New Zealand Police Raid Home Of Reporter Who Embarrassed Gov't Officials & Was Working On Snowden Documents
from the freedom-of-the-press? dept
Apparently, the New Zealand government is not a huge fan of press freedom. The national police force recently raided and ransacked the home of Nicky Hager, an independent journalist who has been a thorn in the current leadership's side for some time now.In August, one month before New Zealand’s national election, Hager published Dirty Politics, which showed that key figures in Prime Minister John Key’s National Party were feeding derogatory information about their opponents to a virulent right-wing blogger named Cameron Slater. Hager published evidence in the form of incriminating emails, provided by a hacker, demonstrating coordination between National Party officials and Slater. The ensuing scandal forced the resignation of a top Key ally, Justice Minister Judith Collins, and implicated numerous other National Party officials and supporters. Despite the scandal, the National Party won a resounding victory in the election, sending Key to a third term as prime minister.And then, once safely back in power, the government wasted little time:
On October 2—less than two weeks after the election—detectives from a regional “major crime team” came to Hager’s Wellington home armed with a search warrant authorizing them to seize anything that might lead them to the identity of his source for Dirty Politics. The warrant shows that prior to the raid, a police “intelligence analyst” had studied Hager’s media appearances in an effort to discover information about his sources for the book, taking particular note of references Hager made to knowing the source’s identity.Over at The Intercept, Glenn Greenwald and Ryan Gallagher note that Hager was also working with them on some Snowden documents as they concerned what was happening in New Zealand. As you may recall, right before the election, Greenwald had used some Snowden documents to show that Prime Minister Key had lied about mass surveillance -- leading Key to petulantly lash out with ad hominems at Greenwald, referring to him as a "loser." Greenwald made it clear that they would likely be revealing more about New Zealand's activities -- and now wonders if that might be another reason why Hager was raided, once the government figured out who Greenwald was working with.
Either way, the search seems quite excessive and seriously raises questions about New Zealand's respect for the freedom of the press:
Once they entered the property, detectives spent ten hours sifting through Hager and his family’s personal effects, making copies of any USB storage devices they found and seizing Hager’s computer, personal documents, a camera, a dictaphone, CDs, and dozens of other items—not to mention his daughter’s laptop, cellphones, and iPod.The whole thing seems fairly crazy, and clearly done to intimidate Hager and others for daring to actually call out the government's bad behavior. These are the kinds of actions that we're supposed to believe no longer happen in modern democracies, but they seem to be happening on an increasingly frequent basis.
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Filed Under: cameron slater, dirty politics, ed snowden, free press, john key, new zealand, nicky hager, raids, snowden documents
Reader Comments
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If they weren't, people would have everything they wanted when investing a work life of 10 years. A capitalist nightmare.
So the democracies are worth shit because people do what they are told. All in all, they overwhelmingly take one of the well-approved choices.
Hitler got into power using the "Entitlement Act" that the parliament was pushed to pass under scaremongering threats calling for the necessity of suspending the constitution in order to strongly deal with a purported national scale emergency.
Any similarities to current developments are not coincidental.
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This cannot be overstated. We are (particularly in the US) the most heavily propagandized people in history.
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We've got to break out of our tribal mindsets and stop being afraid to go against the grain because we're afraid of each other.
United we stand, divided we fall, people.
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Yes. This is, in my opinion, the most important problem that we have, because it is impossible to fix anything else until we address that.
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Neither is the expectation a bunch of brain dead voters would put such an asshole back into office.
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Seriously?
How could anyone put that on a search warrant with a straight face?
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Re: Seriously?
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Feral pigs don't think much... they have more of a sneer on their snout.
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Re: Seriously?
Isn't that what this article is accusing Key et al have done here to Hager's computers? Can NZers do citizens arrests?
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Inb4 'New Zealand is an Oligarchy' study is published
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It happens in the US, too
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Biggest surprise?
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They claim to do this now to go after the "hacker". In reality, all they are doing is justifying something they don't think is right. To the governments of today, catching the bad guys is the only thing that matters. Current thought is that law enforcement's job is to protect the innocents by catching the bad guys (no matter how much collateral damage is done to the innocents). Once you lose the idea that protecting innocent people is #1, you've lost the whole point. You wind up doing things that have chilling effects you may not have ever meant to do.
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Whatever "it" is that does go down I can imagine that any surprise will be fleeting and from those that knew better only to hide the truth from themselves the surprise will be a class act.
New Zealand is being led by, essentially, a gang of thieves.
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Won't ever happen, Kiwi's are timid little flightless birds
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Reiterates the need for police accountability
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Definitions
"anything that brings discomfort to the ruling class"
(I think the USA uses this definition as well)
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the ruling power and their toadies 'the Blackshirts'
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I Should Point Out That ...
So, you see, we do have checks and balances in our little country after all.
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The Common Ground: pedophilia, terror, anonymity and ?copyrights?. ( or could that simply be wrapped up under control mechanism? like terrorizing journalists and counter-culture entrepreneurs and their families ) Five eyes indeed.
Your little country is just as fucked as the next at this pace.
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Re:Enter the "laws of nations". Who's at the party now?
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Except the passive puppets pass what ever they are told to.
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Kiwi's are timid little birds... don't expect to see a demonstration.
The two most passive cultures on the planet, NZ and Aust.
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Not telling the whole story
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Re: Not telling the whole story
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Don't blink!
I wondered when the Fifth Eye would start making noise.
Far too quiet for a member of the White-Guy Global Spy Ring.
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