On Monday Chantelle Baker released a bombshell OIA response that clearly shows that Jacinda Ardern’s Government is actively and deliberately silencing alternative media voices, while they still shovelling millions at their corrupted paid shills in the propaganda press.
What has been revealed will shock you.
The Official Information Act request simply asked for:
“All communications between any member of the Disinformation Assessment and Response Team (DART) and Netsafe during the period of 01 August 2022 and 30 September 2022.”
OIA Request
What came back was undeniable proof that the Labour Government is actively and deliberately censoring alternative media sites and people, simply because they disagree with the Government’s narrative. It reveals a callous and rather nasty attitude by key people within DART and it shows clear targeting of alternative media and people.
It will surprise no one to find that The BFD is being targeted, not just by Police, but also now by the Ministry of Health and presumably, the Department of Internal Affairs, which we recently learned has direct access to Facebook’s “takedown portal”.
In recent months we have noticed a huge drop in traffic from Facebook and even less engagement. We are also now no longer allowed to buy ads on Facebook, yet there are no flags or warnings on our account. Every attempt at advertising fails and is rejected.
Now we know why. The Labour Government via the Ministry of Health is actively and deliberately censoring information flows on Facebook, and The BFD is just one of their targets.
The first email provided in the OIA Response is damning:
As you can see, they are talking about Chantelle Baker “smurfing”, a term that is used in gaming to describe a player in an online game that creates a new account to play against lower-ranked players. In this case, a Facebook user creating a new account to continue to post articles on Facebook.
Daniel Dominey also suggests whacking Chantelle Baker with a rolled up newspaper, “to nudge a wayward dog along”. Talk about bias! What sort of behaviour is this from a senior civil servant?
In this communication Daniel Dominey is communicating with Sean from Netsafe, supposedly an “independent, non-profit online safety organisation”. Sean is in fact Sean Lyons, the Chief Online Safety Officer for Netsafe. The communications show that he is acting as far as possible from being independent. In fact, he is an enthusiastic participant in what they perceive to be a game of whack-a-mole to silence these pesky media upstarts who dare to present alternate views from those of the government.
Sean Lyons expresses frustration with “the platform”, meaning Facebook, which it appears isn’t doing what he and Daniel Dominey want.
But the ad hominem attacks aren’t just focussed on Chantelle Baker; they are also against Voices for Freedom, which Daniel Dominey describes as “Vices for Freedom”. Given his previous emails, I simply can’t believe that it was a typo. More likely it is deliberate.
Then we are treated to a draft report about Voices for Freedom, and their status as one of the “most prolific spreaders of disinformation”. The draft report then reveals that The BFD amongst others is also a target of these two clowns.
Given that there is a “site report” about Voices for Freedom, and that this site and me in particular, are mentioned there is a good chance that there is a “site report” on The BFD as well.
We have made our own OIA request, of the Ministry of Health DART group and also of the Department of Internal Affairs so that we can ascertain the level of direct damage these government agencies are doing to the site.
We are doing this for several reasons, firstly, to make a stand that this sort of secretive behaviour against a media organisation should not be tolerated in a free and democratic society, and secondly, to assess damages so we can investigate legal responses against these faceless bureaucrats who are trampling on our Bill of Rights and rights of The BFD, its writers and its readers to the right to freedom of expression, including the freedom to seek, receive, and impart information and opinions of any kind in any form.
This is an outrageous breach of the Bill of Rights, by unelected and clearly partisan bad actors within the Ministry of Health, Netsafe and Internal Affairs. It must be challenged, it must be fought, it must be stopped.
That is why we are raising funds for our own NewsDesk. These people must be held to account and existing media are failing to even bother to lift a finger as the state sanctions appalling breaches of the Bill of Rights.
The media in New Zealand have become the propaganda press, more intent on peddling propaganda from the Labour Government than talking truth to power.
They’ve remained utterly silent about the Twitter Files, and now they are utterly silent about this breach of the Bill of Rights. They cheered the Police and Government on as mandates were enacted, they celebrated the violent suppression of a peaceful protest. They have become the enemy of the people.
It is time we fought back, but we can’t do it without your help.
Do you value a truly free press, that represents its readers, not the politicians?
Do you value speaking truth to power?
Are you a member of The BFD? Have you donated to the NewsDesk?
If not, why not?
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