New Zealand Prime minister Chris Hipkins was set up for the fail last Sunday when he was asked about New Zealand’s pandemic mandates.
A previous post “Hipkins Hat Trick” looks at how that played out.
RIVER OF FREEDOM is a feature documentary sharing the inside story of the New Zealand Convoy and Parliament protest in February and March 2022—who the people were, why they were there, and what happened!
In the middle of Election 2023, this week became a significnt point in time … another step towards a day of reckoning … and a win for “the resistance”.
It was the mainstream media who popped the question to the PM ahead of this week’s premiere of “River of Freedom” in Wellington.
ROF is a counter production to the STUFF News propaganda (or mocumentary) “Fire and Fury” by disgraced journalist Paula Penfold appropriately produced by media industry casualties who lost their jobs due to Ardern’s pandemic mandates.
The title “River of Freedom” is no surprise given Michael Wood (Hipkin’s fellow minister in the Ardern Administration at the time) had labelled the protestors “Ferals in a River of Filth”.
What mainstream outlets are yet to acknowledge is that there was an abundance of media in the crowd, day and night – 24/7 – the whole time, who witnessed everyday Kiwis from all walks of life cooperate to run a freedom village – “a monumental effort in defence of freedom of choice not an attack on parliament”.
We were there – the msm were outside looking in and lying in their reports to the New Zealand public.
It’s an important intersection in media history where these two productions illustrate the significance of a free press rather than a government propaganda machine – those who stood alongside now disgraced Speaker Trevor Mallard, looking down from parliament and reporting in blind obedience.
It is interference in the election though as much as was Nicky Hagar’s book “Dirty Politics” which he released in the leadup to the 2014 election.
This serves to illustrate the corruption of our democratic principles and the unprincipled government we now have.
The release of ROF wouldn’t be seen as such if like other countries NZ was having a proper inquiry. Ardern made a mockery of Royal Commissions and Hipkins has stonewalled his country’s inquiry.
This has all becoming so farcical with the public reality being reported by a new and growing industry group outside of the mainstream – we came out of the 2020 election saying, “create the alternative” and we’ve done it.
This is the essential part of democracy, that media is a two way street where the public have a voice, not just the government – it’s why parliamentarians not addressing the crowd as other politicians walked amongst the crowd is such an important point.
The NZ mainstream is coming to the realisation that they set themselves on a pedestal above and at times in judgment of their audience. Their audacity gave birth to Ardern’s “Podium of Truth”.
Without an interest in people who disagreed ‘with them’ our media set the country on a path to division and a place where groups can easily be dismissed as “deplorables”.
River of Freedom will in time get the recognition it deserves – not today though … not while this country is still fighting for the preservation of democracy.
New Zealand Reality Check Radio
Writer of Sorts 