Another win for Nicky Hager

Written By: - Date published: 4:26 pm, January 27th, 2016 - 38 comments
Categories: Abuse of power, accountability, Dirty Politics, law, police - Tags: , , ,

They didn’t have much option really:

Update on the High Court case between Nicky Hager and the NZ Police

Yesterday, the New Zealand Police informed Nicky Hager through their counsel that they are electing not to appeal the decision of the High Court given in December last year. That decision held that the Police’s search of Mr Hager’s home had been “fundamentally unlawful”.

There are still other issues that remain unresolved. These include the obtaining by the Police of Mr Hager’s private banking information without a warrant, and issues of costs and damages. The case will continue to deal with those other matters.

However, Mr Hager says he is pleased that the Police have accepted the Judge’s decision that their actions were unlawful. The Police are not to contesting the finding that the warrant was unlawful. “This means the most important part of this saga is now concluded” said Mr Hager. …

38 comments on “Another win for Nicky Hager ”

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  1. Anne 1
    27 January 2016 at 5:05 pm

    I noted in today’s Herald that 130 plus cops have been caught wrongly accessing confidential police records in the past few years. This is something that’s been occurring since well before the advent of computer files. The worst aspect of the behaviour is the ability to use information gathered to destroy an innocent person. It’s happened in the past believe me!

    • Ovid 1.1
      27 January 2016 at 6:10 pm

      No wonder we’ve dropped to fourth on the Corruption Perceptions Index.

      • Keith 1.1.1
        27 January 2016 at 10:06 pm

        Yep Ovid, a big malignant round of applause to John Key and his loyal team of crooks for that result. The only surprise from that survey is that we have not fallen further!

      • greywarshark 1.1.2
        28 January 2016 at 7:28 pm

        Actually we really haven’t ‘dropped’ to that level, we have been there for some time but the sources that Transparency International have queried in the past have been unwilling to really open their eyes to the truth. It’s been The Three Monkeys effect for say a decade at least.

  2. Chooky 2
    27 January 2016 at 5:44 pm

    “Mr Hager says he is pleased that the Police have accepted the Judge’s decision that their actions were unlawful.”

    This is a huge victory for Nicky Hager …and investigative journalism!

    • One Anonymous Bloke 2.1
      27 January 2016 at 6:02 pm

      Not yet. If the court imposes some sort of meaningful penalty on the Crown, then maybe. What chance that the human rights violators – those who gave the orders – will find themselves in the dock?

      Investigative journalism has still been dealt a major blow because the Police cannot be trusted to obey court orders. If the only penalty is a bit of a telling off from the bench the damage will be nowhere close to repaired.

      • Richard Christie 2.1.1
        27 January 2016 at 7:54 pm

        +100%

      • Sacha 2.1.2
        27 January 2016 at 8:27 pm

        Hager’s subsequent court cases are essential, yes.

        • Chooky 2.1.2.1
          28 January 2016 at 5:45 pm

          Hager should sue the pants off them…at least the police have accepted that what they did was UNLAWFUL !

          There must now be accountability by the police or they and the law lose credibility!

          • greywarshark 2.1.2.1.1
            28 January 2016 at 7:32 pm

            What about the state of his equipment, the substitute cost of it, the loss of important contacts and information no doubt, and the loss of his information dossier on the police, either it has disappeared, or part of it, but also the personal secret knowledge which he had and might draw on or not at his own discretion.

            That is all worth money in just replacement without thinking of damage to his reputation, hurt feelings etc.

    • Chris 2.2
      28 January 2016 at 12:46 am

      Or the Crown legislates to make what they did in Hager’s case legal. They probably see the case as doing them a favour by highlighting gaps they see as needing to be closed up. That’s how filthy they are.

  3. One Anonymous Bloke 3
    27 January 2016 at 6:06 pm

    If only Slater’s howls of pain were genuine, my schadenfreude could be too.

    The Crown’s human rights abuses must not go unpunished, and yet what chance of that being so?

  4. Richard Christie 4
    27 January 2016 at 7:56 pm

    I wonder if the police dropped the appeal because pursuing it would have exposed more about exactly how (and by whom) the decision to raid was made.

  5. ianmac 5
    27 January 2016 at 8:10 pm

    I expect that the Court will have to order the giving back all the gear that the Police raid stole from Nicky.
    If you or I stole stuff we would be facing serious court action. But….

  6. vto 6
    27 January 2016 at 8:38 pm

    I noticed an obituary in the paper recently for a previous assistant police commissioner (can’t recall name but it was a very Scottish one) who held office when Muldoon was in power. This man said he was under direct instruction from Muldoon on how to deal with the Bastion Pt protestors. Direct instruction.

    Relate to dotcom today and John Key.

    Relate to Hager today and John Key.

    The police follow instruction from the PM of the day.

    direct from the horse’s mouth

    • Anne 6.1
      27 January 2016 at 9:07 pm

      And John Key is on record as saying Muldoon was the prime minister he most admired and saw him as a mentor…

      • Sacha 6.1.1
        27 January 2016 at 10:48 pm

        uh, role model. And recall the gyp Russel Norman got for suggesting the comparison. Power for its own sake is unattractive for all but the morally weak.

        • Anne 6.1.1.1
          28 January 2016 at 8:40 am

          Yes, I meant role model. Edit time was up before I picked up the mistake. The interesting thing is:

          Muldoon used the SIS and the police to gather info. about opponents in order to discredit them. One early example – the Colin Moyle affair. Has Key been doing the same thing? I’d say the answer is a definite yes.

          • Mosa 6.1.1.1.1
            28 January 2016 at 9:23 am

            I remember Key talking about an enemy list in his possession a few years back that’s how he keeps everyone incl Dunne and others on side unfortunately on this one I think he is being truthful

      • Mosa 6.1.2
        28 January 2016 at 9:32 am

        Muldoon never smiled and waved and posed for photographs and could most of the time form a sentence

  7. upnorth 7
    27 January 2016 at 9:08 pm

    I still don’t know what the fuss is – Hager won on a technicality and personal intrusion – get that but he still made money off an allegded criminal act – therefore no sympathy given and 90% of rest of NZ think that way.

    As I said once before – will he return the donations to the people who fought the court case – if he is awarded costs – that what good human decent people would do – I wait with intrigue

    • upnorth 7.1
      27 January 2016 at 9:28 pm

      clarification – Hager result is the correct one – it is the justification between making money versus stolen data I don’t understand – by the election result no one cared.

      Back to my rock

    • Robert Guyton 7.2
      27 January 2016 at 9:30 pm

      Have they said they want it back?
      I expect not.

    • Mulling it over 7.3
      27 January 2016 at 9:56 pm

      Upnorth- how exactly do YOU know how 90% of NZ think?

    • John Shears 7.4
      27 January 2016 at 10:41 pm

      @upnorth I wondered who Intrigue was but now you have made it clear , she is your rock Wow!!!!

    • One Anonymous Bloke 7.5
      28 January 2016 at 7:27 am

      Upnorth is well out of touch.

      I guess that’s what happens when you get all your “information” from your reckons.

      • greywarshark 7.5.1
        28 January 2016 at 7:35 pm

        From your ‘rockons’?

        And savenz
        Why wouldn’t the police waste money on it. Gummint usually sue the pants off anyone, underpants as well. I think there is a cost benefit decision that the embarrassment of further sunlight and oxygen isn’t worth the cost. So stay under their rocks is the decision, anyway they have a match date coming up soon for the TPPA so they can show off their prowess. Bat-boys’R’Us.

  8. savenz 8
    28 January 2016 at 7:25 am

    Great result. Pleased the police are not going to waste money and resources on this and hope they apologise and make good with damages without drawing it out.

  9. Rob Gilchrist 9
    28 January 2016 at 7:22 pm

    Good.

  10. Ian 10
    28 January 2016 at 10:51 pm

    Nicky got away with it,but he won’t do it again. Thats what the police investigation was about and we have another election coming up. Hager has been given a pass,but if he does it again,he is toast.

    • Jerry 10.1
      29 January 2016 at 4:57 pm

      I think many people – Including the police underestimate the resolve or ability of Mr Hager. I don’t know him personally and I don’t agree with some of his political views or some of his conclusions in his books. I do believe that he genuinely cares about creating a better society. I disagree with the previous comment that Nicky “got away with it but he won’t do it again”. The police are the ones that got away with it but it won’t be for free -it will cost. If the police pull a stunt like that again it is likely that i will cost them even more. The NZ judiciary takes a very dim view of when the police try to “pull a fast one”. Failing to disclose that Mr Hager is an investigative reporter in the search warrant application was frowned upon by the Judicial review. Applying for the warrant in the Manukau district court in Auckland rather than in Wellington where the search was conducted is also curious. The courts don’t like it when the police break he rules. The first time is a “mistake” but a repeat is contempt of court.

      • Micko 10.1.1
        30 January 2016 at 4:59 pm

        I do know Nicky (in the past, very well) and it is my belief that, regardless of his personal politics, he cares deeply about “Speaking truth to power”. He is a meticulous researcher, and has never been successfully sued or prosecuted by anyone he has supposedly libelled. In “Dirty Politics” the only conclusion he reached which has been denied by the victim of the dirt he exposed was his conclusion that Rodney Hide could have been blackmailed by Slater et al into resigning the leadership of ACT. Note that he didn’t say “was blackmailed”, but the information in his possession strongly indicated, at the very least, that Slater was considering a blackmail attempt in the days immediately prior to Hide’s resignation.
        The vituperative attacks on Hager, coupled with the outright lies spread about his motives and his alleged criminality (does anybody seriously believe that if he had broken the law, he would not have been prosecuted?) have led me to the conclusion that his allegations are substantially true. He is to be congratulated for his success in fighting the power of the state and exposing the corruption at the heart of the present government.
        Go Nicky!

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