It feels like yesterday that I told @CitizenBomber (when I was nagging at him to start @TheDailyBlogNZ) 'hey there's a great blogger in Wellington @fmacskasy check him out'
As usual your work is filled with great nuggets however there's some gaps. THREAD
As usual your work is filled with great nuggets however there's some gaps. THREAD
@CitizenBomber @TheDailyBlogNZ @fmacskasy 1. There's no way in hell that @CitizenBomber was targeted solely because of the #DirtyPolitics saga, or that the targeting of him was limited to 2014. In fact, I knew full well he was under surveillance more than a year earlier. Because my visits to his apartment were monitored
@CitizenBomber @TheDailyBlogNZ @fmacskasy 2. & no, NZ media - thinking "ooh! his apartment!" there's no torrid love affair there. We worked together. It's that simple. Even prior to that our Facetime chats were monitored, when I was preaching to Martyn about the necessity of taking on the GCSB (yes that was me in *2012*)
@CitizenBomber @TheDailyBlogNZ @fmacskasy 3. Subsequently, I can tell you without any shadow of a doubt, that the targeting of @CitizenBomber *wasn't* just financial, and it wasn't just by NZ Police. Though he's right to have gone through the channels he has & done what he can to achieve what limited redress is possible
@CitizenBomber @TheDailyBlogNZ @fmacskasy 4. In fact, by the time I was sending @wikileaks heads up on @CitizenBomber's live coverage of other Hager events, which they were duly RT'ing, Martyn would have been already under surveillance for many years. And that's if he wasn't already from other activism before I met him
@CitizenBomber @TheDailyBlogNZ @fmacskasy @wikileaks 5. Martyn's ongoing sporadic contact with me would only aggravate the situation. Because NZ counterterrorism resources bent so far over for US agencies that instead of focusing on actual terrorists they ridiculously turned a solo mother citizen journalists into a top tier target.
@CitizenBomber @TheDailyBlogNZ @fmacskasy @wikileaks 6. But that lecture over - onwards to the actual gaps in your timeline. You mention 2011 Teapot Tapes and RNZ refusing to spill beans on sources - but did you know 2012 Search and Surveillance Bill gave judges the capacity to force journalists to reveal sources?
@CitizenBomber @TheDailyBlogNZ @fmacskasy @wikileaks 7. That piece of legislation mucked with the right to silence as well as particularly looking for a way to undermine journalistic source protections. (And did a bunch of other evil stuff too.) In fact, every single year 2012-2019 there has been a new piece of related legislation
@CitizenBomber @TheDailyBlogNZ @fmacskasy @wikileaks 8. Those pieces of legislation aren't islands. Their contents were 50% direct response to current events (legalising the illegal shit they were doing) & 50% part agenda of what the NSA - GCSB's US counterpart - calls its "global network". It's quite literally a global agenda.
@CitizenBomber @TheDailyBlogNZ @fmacskasy @wikileaks 9. Every time the agencies were caught out - and believe me, they've so far only been caught out on a FRACTION of what they were getting up to - their response was to deny everything then legislate. And the NZ government, both National and Labour - AND THE MEDIA - lets them do it
@CitizenBomber @TheDailyBlogNZ @fmacskasy @wikileaks 10. Let's be real. NZ media were all following me 2011-2015. You think they didn't know I was being targeted? I was screaming about it from the rooftops. You think they don't know what I've had to deal with or what its cost me? And what did they say? Nothing. They're scared.
@CitizenBomber @TheDailyBlogNZ @fmacskasy @wikileaks 11. NZ media have a hundred reasons to stay quiet and only one reason to speak up: integrity. While I've seen *some* examples of integrity in NZ reporting, they are few and far between. The vast majority won't tackle a monolith, or take the risk of becoming targets themselves.
@CitizenBomber @TheDailyBlogNZ @fmacskasy @wikileaks 12. None of them want to be first on things like this. They want to be second. Second is safe. First is dangerous. But as with everything the tide will eventually turn. The work will get done for them and it will become safer for them to report. Then and only then, they may speak
@CitizenBomber @TheDailyBlogNZ @fmacskasy @wikileaks 13. If NZ media reported fairly, accurately and without fear or favour with regards to their overlords, I would never have become a journalist. That's the bottom line truth. I wouldn't have paid the price for them and I wouldn't be where I am. I didn't aspire to this or want it.
@CitizenBomber @TheDailyBlogNZ @fmacskasy @wikileaks 14. But who in MSM wants to tell that truth? That's not sexy. That's not a headline. "We fucked up & regular people had to try and do our job for us, then got stranded without the institutional support we have." As usual, it'll take international journos legwork to force coverage
@CitizenBomber @TheDailyBlogNZ @fmacskasy @wikileaks 15. til then they'll keep watching &, for some of them that still hold a spark of humanity somewhere deep in the recesses of their consciousness, feeling guilty and wishing things were different.
We ask why things don't change? Because not enough of us are brave enough to speak
We ask why things don't change? Because not enough of us are brave enough to speak
