On one level the police search of author Nicky Hager's home and their seizure of his electronic files can be argued as standard measures in a criminal investigation. A complaint of theft had been made and Hager had been identified as the eventual user of the stolen material. The missing
Editorial: Hager raid an intimidatory over-reaction
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Nicky Hager. Photo / Mark Mitchell
It is unlikely anyone else reporting a theft would have resulted in the police raiding the receiver of the stolen property quite so readily. Perhaps the word "hacking" has added a level of excitement to the police inquiry that the taking or copying of a paper file might not have elicited; the political controversy also puts overt public attention on the case. Neither of those factors ought to result in over-reactions of the sort we have seen.
It was well-known that Hager - like Slater - sees himself as an investigative journalist, experienced in dealing with sensitive information from whistleblowers and political operatives. The book was published a month before the search took place, making the chances of Hager storing the details of his source around home next to nil.
This is the second election controversy in a row which has resulted in the police obtaining search warrants against media or journalists. Warrants were obtained against Radio New Zealand and TV3 after the "teapot tapes" row in 2011.
It is not a good look for the police or for their political masters. Inconvenient and embarrassing disclosures do not justify police actions to uncover journalistic sources. The effect of such raids is to intimidate such people from approaching media to disclose uncomfortable truths.
Hager says nothing in the seized equipment could lead to the identity of the hacker, known as Rawshark, but he fears for the confidentiality of other, unrelated, sources in his files. He now has the opportunity to convince a judge that the undertaking of confidentiality to his sources, and the importance of that to the public's right to know, overrides any need for the police to fish through his work on a highly politicised case.
It would be good if that judge took a stand for freedom of expression. He or she will not be deciding whether the hacking was a crime, just whether the police treatment of Hager and his sources can be justified in the pursuit of that relatively minor criminal offence.
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