Civil Rights Advocate, Investigative Journalist
Wellington
New Zealand
Nicky Hager will be presenting on “Where are you, ethically?” on Monday
Nicky Hager is one of New Zealand's few investigative writers and journalists. He moved into this area in the early 1990s, researching a book about New Zealand's largest but least known intelligence agency. The book gained international prominence and has been followed by three other books and a series of investigative newspaper articles. In 2002 he became the New Zealand representative of the Washington-based International Consortium of Investigative Journalists.
That first book was based on interviews with a wide range of past and present intelligence officials. Nicky was able to document the US intelligence systems used to monitor international telecommunications (particularly a system codenamed Echelon). In the course of this investigation, he made extensive use of a wide range of libraries, archives, public records and freedom of information laws. He developed methods of combining open sources with confidential sources that he has since applied to a succession of other subjects. As a user of records (obtained officially and unofficially) he has developed a strong interest in freedom of information and issues surrounding recordkeeping.
Investigative journalism is essentially a democratic project. It is about informing the public about matters that those in power would prefer to keep secret. It is about holding people in authority accountable for their actions. It often involves shining a light behind the public relations strategies and media management that shape much of what the public receives as news.
Nicky Hager's latest book, The Hollow Men, was an example of all of these roles. Based on a remarkable collection of papers from New Zealand's National Party, he was able to write the inside story of the country's main conservative party for the period 2003-2006. The book documented all kinds of activities that the party had assumed would remain secret: dishonesty, illegality, hidden alliance and an extraordinary cynicism towards ordinary voters. The party leader resigned on the day the book was published.
Investigative journalism involves a constant series of ethical dilemmas. It involves digging into subjects and stories that those in power would rather keep secret, including inviting insiders to leak information about the organisations for which they work. There are multiple issues surrounding protection of sources, judging whether leaked information is of high enough public interest to justify the breaches of confidence, protecting individuals' privacy (which is different to protecting an organisation's secrets) and working out the rights and wrongs of the questionable activities that are uncovered. Nicky Hager is a philosophy graduate (he also has a science degree in physics) with a long-term interest in these sorts of ethical problems. He lives in Wellington, New Zealand, and has one daughter.
Nicky Hager
Investigative Journalist
73 Grafton Road
Roseneath
Wellington
New Zealand
Telephone: +64 (0)4 384 5074
