The country's most influential union has come out in support of NBR publisher Barry Colman's stance against the Serious Fraud Office's wide ranging powers of seizure. The Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union (EPMU) is supporting calls from Mr Col
The country's most influential union has come out in support of NBR publisher Barry Colman's stance against the Serious Fraud Office's wide ranging powers of seizure.
The Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union (EPMU) is supporting calls from Mr Colman to exclude journalists from search and seizure powers of the SFO following the recent order that the newspaper hand over to the SFO documents relating to South Canterbury Finance.
Some will find the the endorsement ironic, given the general tone of NBR's union coverage, and that of the career of its national secretary Andrew Little (who also serves as Labour Party president).
But in this case, Mr Little shares the same values.
“Even though in this case it appears a journalist's sources were not compromised, the democratic principle that information gathered by journalists in the course of their duties needs to be protected from seizure by agencies of the state must be reflected in our laws,” said the EMPU boss.
“If we don't protect the freedom and independence of the media from state agencies then we are no better than dictatorships and other abusers of citizens' democratic freedoms".
The EPMU is New Zealand’s largest private sector union with around 45,000 members across eleven industry sectors. It represents around 1,000 journalists in print and broadcasting and is affiliated to the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ).
