Monday, 13 February 2012, 9:11 am
Article: Annemarie Thorby

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL1202/S00073/the-wheels-of-justice-in-new-zealand.htm

After more than four years, the start of the Urewera raids trial will begin on Monday morning in the Auckland High Court. Over four years ago in New Zealand, on October 15th 2007, more than 300 police carried out dawn raids on scores of houses.

That was the day more than 60 homes up and down the country were raided, 17 people arrested and the Tuhoe community of Ruatoki, a small rural town in the Te Urewera region of the Bay of Plenty was locked down

What happens in the Auckland High Court in New Zealand over the next few months will be watched not only by people here, but also the world. Many people believe this case is about the criminalisation of activism, it is about the right of indigenous people to self-determination and it is about the use of legislation introduced in many countries around the world as a knee-jerk reaction to 9/11 – legislation used to silence all forms of dissent. This trial is about justice to right wrongs.

Read full article here

Source

http://aotearoaawiderperspective.wordpress.com/2011/09/13/the-end-of-free-speech-in-new-zealand/

When Vinny Eastwood, host of the Vinny Eastwood show on American Freedom radio tried to exercise his right to freedom of speech on the streets of Auckland on the 11th of September he was confronted with a brand spanking new by law: No sharing of information on the public streets of Auckland. No pamphlets, no DVD’s and above all no bullhorn. If you do so you will be subject tp prosecution and confiscation of these materials. This is the result of the brand spanking new anti terrorist laws pushed through under urgency by National. How’s that change feeling?