EPMU supports NBR publisher on protection of sources

The Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union (EPMU) supports calls from National Business Review (NBR) publisher Barry Colman to exclude journalists from search and seizure powers of the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) following the recent order that the newspaper hand over to the SFO documents relating to South Canterbury Finance.

“Even though in this case it appears a journalist's sources were not compromised, the democratic principle that information gathered by journalists in the course of their duties needs to be protected from seizure by agencies of the state must be reflected in our laws,” says EPMU national secretary Andrew Little.

“If we don't protect the freedom and independence of the media from state agencies then we are no better than dictatorships and other abusers of citizens' democratic freedoms,” he says.

The EPMU is New Zealand’s largest private sector union with around 45,000 members across eleven industry sectors. It represents around 1,000 journalists in print and broadcasting and is affiliated to the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ).

ENDS

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