Media release
New MFAT Chief of Protocol

5 August 2004

Senior diplomat Malcolm McGoun has taken up an appointment as Chief of Protocol for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Secretary of Foreign Affairs and Trade Simon Murdoch said today.

The position involves responsibility for liaison with overseas diplomats based in New Zealand, visits by foreign dignitaries and management of diplomatic privileges, accreditations and immunities.

Mr McGoun’s 30-year diplomatic career has included postings to The Hague, Seoul, Paris, and Kuala Lumpur. He was most recently Ambassador to Viet Nam.

He replaces Graeme Waters in the protocol position. Mr Waters is about to take up a new position as High Commissioner in New Delhi.

ENDS

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Gordon Campbell: On the Sony cyber attack

Given the layers of meta-irony involved, the saga of the Sony cyber attack seemed at the outset more like a snarky European art film than a popcorn entry at the multiplex.

Yet now with (a) President Barack Obama weighing in on the side of artistic freedom and calling for the US to make a ‘proportionate response’quickly followed by (b) North Korea’s entire Internet service going down, and with both these events being followed by (c) Sony deciding to backtrack and release The Interview film that had made it a target for the dastardly North Koreans in the first place, then ay caramba…the whole world will now be watching how this affair pans out. More>>