Snooping concerns raised

Fresh fears have been raised over media freedom after parliamentary bosses claimed they tracked a Fairfax journalist because they considered a leaked Government report a major security breach.

New Zealand’s biggest media company, Fairfax Media, has complained to Parliament’s Speaker after receiving the explanation and says it amounts to petty state surveillance.

The Media Freedom Committee has also raised the alarm and its chairman, Tim Murphy, said parliamentary access cards were not provided for the purposes of monitoring and passing on information about the movement of journalists to others.

‘‘I think other jurisdictions would be shocked by it.’’

Parliamentary Service confirmed last week that it had tracked Fairfax journalist Andrea Vance in an apparent attempt to match up her movements with UnitedFuture MP Peter Dunne.

Mr Dunne resigned as revenue minister after a government inquiry led by top public servant David Henry identified him as the main suspect behind a leaked report on the Government Communi- cations Security Bureau. Mr Dunne denied being the source of the leak.

Parliamentary Service confirmed it handed over records of Vance’s swipe card access around Parliament but has refused to say on whose authority, and whether it has tracked journalists movements on previous occasions.

After Fairfax sought an explanation, Parliamentary Service general manager Geoff Thorn said the Henry inquiry was dealing with a breach of security relating to the unauthorised release of sensitive information which might have taken place within the parliamentary precinct.

‘‘The Parliamentary Service was asked to co-operate with the inquiry by releasing specific information from the security system about the movements of Ms Vance within the precincts.’’

Parliamentary Service refuses to say who asked it to co-operate with the inquiry, however.

Prime Minister John Key’s chief of staff, Wayne Eagleson, is known to have written to ministers asking them to cooperate.

Mr Key has said he did not agree with the decision to release Vance’s swipe card records.

Mr Thorn said the decision to release those records was consistent with ‘‘the maintenance of the law’’ particularly the investigation of ‘‘any potential wrongdoing or possibly an offence’’.

There was previously no suggestion that an offence may have been committed.

Mr Thorn said MPs’ movements could not be tracked because they had parliamentary privilege.

Fairfax group executive editor Paul Thompson said political journalists must be allowed to work freely at Parliament and they should not be subject to this sort of’ ‘‘petty surveillance’’.

‘‘This snooping inevitably interferes with the way journalists and political sources interact with each other.

‘‘We still do not know who authorised the release of these records and whether it was a one-off or whether such information is routinely provided by Parliamentary Service.’’

He said Fairfax would raise its concerns with Speaker David Carter next week.

Press Gallery chairwoman Jessica Mutch said she would also be meeting Mr Carter next week to raise concerns about the incident.