John McLean: Partisan Penfold

Paula has stopped pretending...to be a proper journalist

Paula Penfold was once a pretty credible journalist. Her journalistic investigation of Teina Pora’s wrongful conviction for rape and murder was admirable and contributed to the quashing of his conviction and a multimillion dollar settlement for Pora.

Peter Williams: Another Biased Judge

We first heard the term “judicial activism” in 1987. Justice Robin Cooke, in his opinion for New Zealand Maori Council v Attorney-General, said the Treaty of Waitangi was “akin to a partnership.” It is one of the most famous lines in this country’s jurisprudence and was the first enunciation of the concept of partnership as a principle of the Treaty.

Jonathan Ayling: Desinformatsya - a Soviet hangover

The Disinformation Project represented so much of what is wrong with the censorship culture we’re experiencing in democracies like New Zealand today. The word disinformation itself has troubling origins, coined by Stalin to control public opinion.

I’ve studied 6 languages, and to me, big words can be fascinating.

The word obscurantism, for instance, means the use of technical or overly-complex language to confuse a meaning or make understanding a concept more difficult than it needs to be.

Chris Lynch: Bye Bye disinformation project

It’s no surprise the disinformation project, long functioning as a political weapon, has finally collapsed.

For several years, it served as a platform for far-left ideologues, led by Kate Hannah, to demonise dissenting voices under the guise of protecting the public from “disinformation.”

The project didn’t expose lies—it tried to silence opposition – and it failed.

Suze: They Are Lying Grifters

The Disinformation Project takes a close look at social media platforms, which they call an “online ecosystem”, but shows no interest in MSM platforms.

The Disinformation Project (DP) is aptly named and, if Chantelle Baker is an indicator of public push-back against Kate Hannah and her posse of disinformation experts, the DP should seriously consider packing up and leaving town because their disinformation days are numbered when they do not survive legal scrutiny.

Bob McCoskrie: “Human Rights” – just not yours

If you want evidence of why you the taxpayer should not be funding activist groups like the Human Rights Commission you only need to look at their latest publication – 102 pages of pure bunkem that wasted a tree in printing. But it’s gonna be cold tonight – so it’s the perfect fire starter

Conversion Practices Insights Report has been released by the Human Rights Commission – that’s the human rights for people we like commission. The intro says:

Nick Hanne: The Censors who'll save us from ourselves......yeah right!

There's a common malady suffered by bureaucracies the world over. They wish to save us from ourselves. Sadly, NZ officials are no less prone to exhibiting symptoms of this occupational condition.

Observe, for instance, the reaction from certain public figures to the news the Department of Internal Affairs has abandoned the formation of a new online super regulator. Without the new state entity criminal activity, according to these critics, we’ll now have free rein on the internet.

Cam Slater: Is This Really a Problem?

Apparently, an ‘independent’ study commissioned by the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet suggests that people are being exposed, shock horror, to misinformation. But is it really a problem?

Bob McCoskrie: Chloe proves the danger of ‘hate speech’ laws

In 2022, the Labour Government released a discussion document on hate speech laws that intended to strengthen protections against speech inciting hatred or discrimination because they said they didn’t believe the law was clear enough, specifically highlighting that trans, gender diverse and intersex people needed to be protected from “discrimination”. They said the final proposal would make changes to clarify this by changing the word “sex” (currently understood as biological sex as would be naturally expected) – changed to include “sex characteristics or intersex status” and adding a new ground of “gender including gender expression and gender identity”.

Penn Raine: Fair suck of the sav

At his leaving party in London a NZ friend was told by his co-workers that they thought ‘Kiwi’ stood for Keen, Interested, Without Intelligence. He said he thought it was a joke. Probably. When working there I too was told something similar, that Brits in general thought that we’re nice, co-operative but just a bit thick.

This view of us is not one that stereotypically we hold of ourselves. I used to have students write with dismal regularity that we’re globally renown for being the clean and green country belonging to God. That we are celebrated for being first in giving women the vote (the century before last I pointed out) and Everest. Then there’s the AB’s, occasionally, with the more widely read having mentioned Ernest Rutherford.

Karl du Fresne: The anti-conspiracy theory conspiracy theorists

Today's Morning Report devoted seven minutes to a promotional plug for a new RNZ podcast called Undercurrent, which promises to expose rampant mis- and disinformation that we are told threatens to contaminate the coming election.

In the news story that preceded the plug, we were informed that Greens co-leader James Shaw was assaulted by a “conspiracy theorist” in 2019.

Sean Plunket: How to fix a broken media

I’ve been a journalist and broadcaster for nearly forty years. I’ve worked in radio, television and print, in both the public and private sectors. Two years ago, I set up a new online media company called The Platform. It streams talk radio, long-form interviews and sports even. We publish commentary and opinion pieces from a very wide range of writers.

I’ve never been successfully sued for defamation, I’ve won a few awards and in hundreds of thousands of hours on air, I’ve only had one BSA ruling against me. Now I’d like to think that might make me an expert in NZ media and give me a perspective about its current state.

But I’m not. I’m told by mainstream media and those a little younger than me that I’m pale stale and male, a coloniser, a rapist, a misogynist and, of course, a TERF.

Derek Mackie: No right turn - keep hard Left!

The taxi wound its way through downtown Auckland, past the empty shops and the homeless people begging outside Prada and Louis Vuitton. 

“It’s next on the Left.” said the driver. 

“Perfect,” said his passenger. 

“Just the way I like it.” 

 Agent Hipkins, code-name Mr Red, checked into his 2-star accommodation and found his room. He dropped his case on the bed and Left his jacket on the back of the door. 

Another undercover mission, another cheap hotel. 

 Secretly recruited at university by SIS (Socialist Indoctrination Service) and planted as a sleeper into the top echelons of the State, he had recently been activated and anonymously assigned to the “intelligence” section of The Disinformation Project (DP). 

Both as a deep-cover operative, and in his day job in national governance, Hipkins was fully committed to eliminating dangerous, if not all free speech in NZ and eventually the World, until only safe and reliable socialist government propaganda was Left.