Author and Investigative Journalist
Michael Bassett and Richard Long used their recent columns to criticise me and my book The Hollow Men but they barely mentioned, much less debated, the contents of the book. Nor did they acknowledge that they both feature prominently…..
A LEAKED report reveals the 61 New Zealand Army engineers caught up in the Iraq conflict have spent only a fraction of their time helping rebuild services for Iraqi civilians….
The role New Zealand soldiers are playing in Iraq is not the one the government has sold to the country… (This feature was the first expose of New Zealand military activities in Iraq.)
Nicky Hager reveals a controversial American company behind the South Island’s proposed Project Aqua scheme….
It is not surprising if you haven’t heard of Project Aqua. It is the largest power scheme planned in New Zealand since the Clyde Dam 20 years ago and already it is controversial in the local area around Oamaru. But a lot of state resources are going into trying to silence the opponents and avoid the inconvenience of genuine public debate….
This chapter is about some of the powerful tools an individual can use to dig out useful and important information that exposes wrongdoing and empowers the public. Starting with the story of the research behind my book on anti-environmental public relations, Secrets and Lies, I want to decsribe how a sensible person with time, persistence […]
Frantic Government damage control followed the release last week of my book Seeds of Distrust. We were told the book was completely untrue and that I was a conspiracy theorist taking part in a Green Party dirty trick.
The book tells the story of how the New Zealand government handled the unwelcome news of contamination of corn crops with genetically-engineered seeds. Officials succumbed to industry lobbying, quietly changed the regulations to “allow” contaminated crops. ‘managed’ the risk of politicians and the public objecting by keeping the whole incident secret. The book is not about the corn but about the political management. It takes readers step-by-step through the crisis, based on original documents from an unhappy insider.
Seeds of Distrust, the story of a GE cover-up Foreword In 1999 I co-authored a book about the relationship between government, business and public relations companies. Our conclusion was that secrecy allowed the then National Government to abuse power as it allowed state agencies to mislead the public and play politics in pursuit of their […]
PR is a huge feature of modern politics. Every journalist spends a lot of his or her time coping with and trying to see through PR communications and tactics. However the issue for journalists should not just be surviving PR tactics and spin, but turning the spotlight on it….