Cameron Slater: What's good for the goose is good for the gander

Thank you Martyn Bradbury for bringing something that I was unaware of to my attention.

This is something that SHOULD be explosive but the powers-that-be are able to keep quiet.

Why is it that the "public" is so quiescent in all of this? Cynical manipulation is the answer. There is, I am sure, a secret hand behind all of this.

Despite the revelations dirty politics continues to go on unabated.

This has all the markings of fascism - a battle of fascist forces with anti-fascist forces for the hearts and minds of everyone inbetween.

Bring in something like the Ashburton shooting and threats against Work and Income offices and which way do people go. Works a treat every time - look at history - it always has.

Businessman who is taking Blogger to court for defamation attacked

http://thedailyblog.co.nz/2014/04/14/businessman-who-is-taking-blogger-to-court-for-defamation-attacked/#sthash.rhBUaS1P.dpuf

The NBR are reporting (paywalled) that Matt Blomfield, the businessman taking Cameron Slater to court for defamation, has been attacked last night with shots fired at his home.

How vicious and nasty. Thoughts are with Matt and his family.

High-profile Auckland businessman Matthew Blomfield attacked at home

NBR,

14 April, 2014

NBR ONLINE understands high-profile businessman Matthew Blomfield was hospitalised following an attack at his home on the weekend.

Police have confirmed two men were involved in a fight at an address in Greenhithe on Saturday night.

Spokeswoman Beth Bates said a gunshot was heard and a 38 year-old man – understood to be Mr Blomfield – was found with facial injuries. He was taken to hospital and has since been discharged.

She says the offender had fled by the time armed police arrived. The offender remains outstanding and unidentified but inquiries are continuing, police say.

Mr Blomfield was a multiple franchisee with Hell Pizza until 2008 when he closed all five of his franchised outlets after a dispute with TPF Group, which became the master franchisees for Hell New Zealand in 2006.

He ran the pizza chain’s edgy marketing campaigns through his advertising company Cinderella Communications, which was put into liquidation in 2008.

The businessman is in the midst of defamation proceedings against Whale Oil blogger Cameron Slater.

Judge Charles Blackie ruled Mr Slater could not rely on journalists' rights to protect the identity of sources used to publish information about Mr Blomfield but Mr Slater has indicated he will appeal this decision.

Death threats before attack

A businessman who suffered facial injuries during a vicious fight in his home with a masked gunman had received anonymous death threats prior to the incident.

NZ Herald,

5 September, 2014

Matthew Blomfield, 38, suffered facial injuries after being hit with a rifle and is understood to have narrowly avoided being shot when the gun went off during the terrifying ordeal last Saturday night.

The gunman, wearing a Spiderman mask, tried to gain access to Blomfield's home, where his wife and two small children were, it is understood.

A police manhunt with armed officers failed to locate the offender. Forensics officers spent a day at the house searching for any DNA traces.

Several neighbours witnessed part of the attack. Blomfield was admitted to North Shore Hospital with facial injuries and was discharged on Sunday.

Blomfield said he had been advised by police not to comment.

But writing on blog site The Standard last year, he told how he and members of his family had received anonymous, violent threats. Blomfield, a former Hell Pizza advertising executive, launched defamation action against Whale Oil blogger Cameron Slater for a series of posts written in 2012.

The case is ongoing.

Slater faces prosecution for breaching privacy

Whale Oil blogger Cameron Slater is being prosecuted for the same thing he is complaining about - using someone else's private communications without their permission.

NZ Herald,

22 August, 2014

And the prosecution could see the blogger ordered to produce in court original copies of information used in Nicky Hager's Dirty Politics.

Slater filed a complaint with the Privacy Commission after Hager used years of hacked email and social media conversations to write the book, which paints a picture of a National government which encourages attack politics through blogs.

But the Commission has recently decided Slater had breached the privacy of businessman Matt Blomfield after the blogger published dozens of posts on Whale Oil based on a computer hard drive he had obtained.

It passed the case to the office of the Director of Human Rights Proceedings, which is now prosecuting him over five days in October.

Barrister Simon Judd, who is prosecuting the case for the Director of Human Rights Proceedings, said Slater was defending the case by claiming he was a journalist and not subject to the Privacy Act.

He said it would be argued Slater was not a journalist - and even if he was, the material he published on Mr Blomfield was not a "news media activity".

"If he's putting stuff on the internet about Mr Blomfield where this is no public interest and the stuff he is putting on is private information, we would argue that can't possibly be a news activity."

He said he believed some material highlighted in Dirty Politics could be sought from Slater through discovery rules because it had relevance to the prosecution.

Dirty Politics claimed there was an arrangement which saw public relations specialist Carrick Graham feeding posts to Slater's blog attacking those who challenged his clients.

The posts included attacks on those campaigning against alcohol, obesity and smoking.

He said it could make the case that Slater's involvement in "public relations work for corporates" was not an activity which was consistent with claims he was a journalist.

Mr Judd said if the prosecution was successful then remedies could includes a financial damages award and an order for Slater to attend a training session on privacy rights.

Mr Blomfield claimed Slater obtained a computer hard drive with 10 years of data on it, including emails, family photographs and legal documents.

The material was used to write content for the blog which had a "huge" impact, said Mr Blomfield.

"It is not just the feeling of having no privacy whatsoever. It's the privacy of everyone around you that is taken away as well. It's a very good way to destroy any relationship you have with anyone in terms of trust."

He said the Dirty Politics case was different as it Hager had removed personal details from the hacked content and it was about public figures.

"I'm running my household. They're running the country."

Mr Blomfield is also suing Slater for defamation with a full hearing expected next year.

A High Court decision is pending in the case on whether Slater is a journalist - a status he is seeking in the belief it will allow him to withhold information about his sources from Mr Blomfield.

Slater did not return calls for comment.

HERE is an archive of material on this subject