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Why we must oppose the Foreign Interference Legislation (gpja.org.nz)

submitted 2 weeks ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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This legislation is all about forcing a U.S. centric foreign policy on New Zealand, making it illegal to sympathise with anything other than the BBC or CNN official narrative. They will start harassing people at the airports and it will continue to get worse. Support for Palestine and Donbass are the targets here, but in the future SIS will go full McCarthyism over China. Once the government bans foreign media outlets, the next logical step is to ban anyone who operates independently as a journalist or activist, then the only views you will hear will be Israeli, Ukrainian or Taiwanese. Free speech, but only if you support the U.S. narrative. I look forward to battling SIS and defending free speech.

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

This offence criminalises the act of “foreign interference”. To commit the offence, a person must be doing an activity for a foreign state, and the person’s actions must include all three of the following key elements – they:

know, or ought to know, they are acting for a foreign state, and
act in a covert, deceptive, coercive, or corruptive manner, and
intend to, or be aware that they are likely to, harm New Zealand interests specified in the offence through their actions.

This doesn't really back up the claims you make in the body text, and this is the source you've provided to back yourself up.

First, factual reporting isn't acting for a foreign state, unless they're paying you a salary.

Second, there isn't anything deceptive about reading, writing or sharing news articles.

Third, I struggle to see how this would harm NZ interests.

This is all very tinfoil hat, in my view.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago

That last bit is the loophole you can drive a train through. A reporter can indeed be charged with "acting for a foreign state". That is vague enough to cover anybody who reports about anything

Of course it will be selectively enforced so that you could be silenced or jailed for reporting on a massacre in the west bank but an actual Israeli citizen setting up a lobbying effort to give political donations to parties or candidates will not be charged with anything.

We already have Israelis, US, and UK based think tanks and lobbyists working here. None of them will touched but you can bet your ass any arab or chinese advocate will be shut down.