MEDIA RELEASE
September 17, 2014

Internet MANA Will Grant Special Residency to Edward Snowden

Internet MANA will put the case to the new government to welcome global surveillance whistle blower Edward Snowden, granting him safe passage and residency in New Zealand.

Leaders Hone Harawira and Laila Harré said Mr Snowden had made enormous personal sacrifice to tell the world about the shocking global surveillance spiderweb that is the Five Eyes network in which New Zealand is an active participant.

“Edward Snowden was motivated by a deep ethical concern with the systematic misrepresentation by governments of their surveillance activities to their own populations. His actions have revealed multiple breaches of national and international law and privacy intrusion on a massive scale.

“We know that Edward Snowden wants to return home to the United States. However, until his safety there can be guaranteed he should be offered the option of moving to a democratic English-speaking country. That is what we want the new government to enable. We are sure that New Zealanders would want to see him protected while he pursues all his options for returning to the United States.”

ENDS

© Scoop Media

Gordon Campbell: On The Government’s Smokefree Laws Debacle

The most charitable explanation for National’s behaviour over the smokefree legislation is that they have dutifully fulfilled the wishes of the Big Tobacco lobby and then cast around – incompetently, as it turns out - for excuses that might sell this health policy U-turn to the public. The less charitable view is that the government was being deliberately misleading. Are we to think Prime Minister Christopher Luxon is a fool, or a liar? It seems rather early on in his term of office to be facing that unpleasant choice. Yet when Luxon (and senior MP Chris Bishop) tried to defend the indefensible with the same wildly inaccurate claim, there are not a lot of positive explanations left on the table.... More