Andrea Vance
Journalists are a horrible lot. There’s no hiding from it. We snoop, pry, ask awkward questions and badger people who would rather not provide the answers. One of those people is Winston Peters.
Over his 40-year career, Peters has made a career of ignoring or belittling reporters who have the brass neck to hold him to account.
He exploits public mistrust in the media. And long before Donald Trump’s frequent threats and hostile acts directed towards journalists, Peters made a theatrical contempt for the media part of his personal brand.
(He’s also used positive coverage to his advantage: using friendly journalists to create the narrative of the barefoot boy from Northland done good and honing his maverick leader persona.)
Us hacks are pretty thick-skinned and most of us would rather not be on MPs’ Christmas card lists. If Winston Peters likes you, you aren’t doing your job properly.
But now Peters has gone a step farther than his usual tantrums. Last week, he admitted NZ First was involved in the surveillance-style photos of Stuff journalist
Matt Shand and RNZ reporter Guyon Espiner meeting former NZ First president Lester Gray.
In an echo of the Dirty Politics saga, the snaps ended up on a right-wing political blog, which appears to be the re-incarnation of defunct attack-politics blog Whale Oil.
No doubt Peters’ supporters are enjoying the irony of publishing paparazzi-style photos of the reporters digging dirt on their party.
For reasons that are unfathomable to me, New Zealand tends to minimise Peters more outrageous behaviour. But he is no lovable rogue – and this is straight-up intimidation.
Protecting the identity of journalists’ sources is an essential part of media freedom.
The threat of surveillance is chilling. It can have an intimidating and traumatising effect. I have experience of this. In 2013, after reporting on illegal spying, a log of all calls I placed to people around Parliament over three months was released to an inquiry focused on the leak of the Kitteridge report on the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB).
My movements around the building were also tracked, using data from my security swipe card. I still remember feeling sick as an IT staffer showed me pages of ‘‘meta-data’’ – a record of hundreds of calls. For a long time afterwards, it made me anxious and paranoid. I worried not only for the privacy of my professional contacts but also for friends and family. And that is the point.
Snooping on journalists is an attempt to silence and shut them down. It makes you think twice about doing the work expected of you.
Back in 2013, some of my greatest defenders were Labour and Green politicians. Without dogged questioning from then-Greens leader Russel Norman, I might never have learned about the release of my records.
They now risk being accused of hypocrisy. Both parties were staunch critics of National’s ‘dirty politics’ tactics in 2014 but have remained quiet about Peters’ latest antics.
We might be a troublesome and unlovable bunch but good journalism and a free press is an essential part of a functioning democracy. This attack on Shand and Espiner’s privacy is an attack on the public’s right to know about who is secretly funding their government partner.
Both Labour and the Greens must acknowledge that and condemn it, if we are to believe their exhortations New Zealand politics should be transparent and fair.
If Winston Peters likes you, you aren’t doing your job properly.