Rodney Hide: Hager shouldn't be surprised by raid

Nicky Hager. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Opinion

It's an outrage! A shocking abuse of police power! Oh my goodness. The police have raided Nicky Hager's house.

The poor thing. He was "speaking truth to power". The state retaliated.

Hager has said: "The police actions are dangerous for journalism in New Zealand."

To the anointed left, Hager is an investigative journalist. He is good and true. Blogger Cameron Slater is a smear merchant and paid shill. He is evil and false.

An anonymous hacker stole Slater's emails and Facebook messages.

Hager then published them in Dirty Politics to implicate Prime Minister John Key in dark and evil plots. The links were tenuous at best.

I warranted a brief chapter myself. Hager alleges Slater blackmailed me to resign the Act Party leadership. It's not true.

The first I knew of any allegation or blackmail was Hager's book.

Hager never rang to check his allegations. He published them without a rudimentary check. Left-wing commentator Chris Trotter publicly defended Hager's not checking his allegations. That would alert those he maligned who might then injunct his book. And so Hager denied his victims the usual rights and legal protections.

The extreme left has no problem with that. The anointed have no need for legal process. They have no need to provide rights of reply. They have no need to check facts. They are right. The rest of us are wrong.

Hager pored through stolen private and personal information. There were emails to the wife. Messages about a sick and dying mum.

Hager then decided what was public interest and published it. We do not know what became of what he regarded as personal and private.

To me, it's clear a crime was committed. Slater duly complained.

The police are investigating. In the course of their investigation they convinced a judge to grant a warrant to search Hager's house.

The search was subject to the law. It was authorised. Hager's personal information is to be protected. It won't be made public.

Any alleged wrongdoing will have to be backed by evidence to be tested in court.

Those alleged to have done wrong will be presumed innocent. They will have their day in court.

If only Hager's victims had been afforded such rights.

Of course, there's no need: his victims are made guilty by their politics.

Slater's computer was ransacked. Information was taken. The hack was illegal, furtive and anonymous.

Hager then published the stolen information, wrapped his own story around it, and gave no right of reply. His evidence was never checked or tested.

But that's okay. That's because those he attacked have their politics wrong.

What's not okay is the police investigating the crime and exercising a lawful warrant.

As far as the extreme left is concerned, Slater has no rights and Hager enjoys super ones.

And they wonder why we laugh at them.

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