Nicky Hager: An 'incredibly good' day for journalism

Investigative journalist Nicky Hager left the Auckland High Court today carrying boxes full of documents and electronic equipment wrongfully seized by police in a raid in October 2014.

Inside the boxes were sealed plastic bags containing hundreds of thousands of files, CDs of family photos and even an old cellphone belonging to his daughter.

The police seized the items during a raid at Mr Hager's Wellington home 17 months ago.

Police hoped the documents would help to reveal the identity of the hacker Rawshark, who leaked sensitive information regarding John Key's 2012 election campaign, found in emails and on social media accounts of Whale Oiler blogger Cameron Slater.

The raid, said by the court to be "fundamentally unlawful", was described by Mr Hager as a scene out of the film Rambo.

He said the retrieval and physical destruction of a drive containing copies of his files made by police meant it was an "incredibly good day" today, not only for himself, but for journalists all over the country.

"I felt that I was watching history going on . . . each blow of that hammer was hitting home the fact that because of this court case there are better protections. There are better legal protections nowadays for the media. I hope everyone will benefit from this."

Mr Hager's lawyer Stephen Price said the danger with raids such as the one executed on Mr Hager's property was that it put all whistleblower sources at risk.

"This is not just about one source for one book. This is about the range of sources that Nicky has and the range of sources that a whole lot of other journalists have. And the message that this case sends to the police is be very, very, very careful," said Mr Price.

According to Mr Hager, the recovered items were stored in a small, dark room in the basement of the high court. The detective who had executed the raid on Mr Hager's property destroyed the 2-terabyte hard-drive used by police to store files copied from Mr Hager's computer by vigorously striking it 213 times with an orange-handled hammer.

The police were determined to do their job properly, said Mr Hager.

"I strongly believe that there will be no Rambo police raids into anyone like me or other parts of the media for a long time now . . . They'd have to be fools to do this again.

"I hope what this means is that people won't be scared to be whistleblowers and sources for the media. They'll realise that this has actually proven legal protections."

The Dirty Politics author said he was grateful for the support of his lawyers, other members of the media who testified as witnesses in the case, and members of the public who donated money.

Press Release: http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO1603/S00287/polic...