20 February 2024
John Luke
[FYI request #25510 email]
REF: DOIA-2324-0528
Tēnā koe John
Your Official Information Act request
Thank you for your email of 24 January 2024 to the Ministry for Ethnic Communities (the
Ministry) requesting the fol owing information under the Official Information Act 1982:
…copies of the fol owing policies: Social Media Policy, Allowances Policy, Travel Policy,
and the Gifts and Hospitality Policy…
As noted in our partial transfer letter to you on 1 February 2024, the Department of Internal
Affairs (DIA) will be responding to the parts of your request for the following policies:
Allowances Policy,
Travel Policy, and the
Gifts and Hospitality Policy.
In response to your request, the Ministry’s
Social Media Policy is being released to you in full
and is included within this document.
You have the right to seek an investigation and review by the Ombudsman of our response
to your request. Information about how to contact the Ombudsman’s office is available at:
www.ombudsman.parliament.nz or freephone: 0800 802 602.
Please note, due to the public interest in our work, the Ministry may publish responses to
requests for official information on our website, shortly after the response has been sent. If
you have any queries about this, please feel free to contact our Ministerial Services team:
[email address].
Ngā mihi
Edward Firth
Director of Ministerial Services
1
The policy
Social media – personal use
While MEC staff have the same rights of free speech and independence in the
conduct of their private affairs as other members of the public, MEC has the
following expectations of staff when using social media in a personal capacity.
• You have a duty of care not to publicly criticise policies or work you have
been professionally involved or associated with.
• Avoid associating yourself with MEC or the work of MEC if you are using a
social media site that includes language or images that may be considered
offensive or may damage your reputation personally and/or professionally.
• Be aware that if you mention MEC, then your comments are no longer
personal. If you have identified yourself as a MEC employee in your profile,
state that your views are your own.
• If you use any information on social media sites gained in the course of your
official duties, ensure that it has already been published and is publicly
available.
• Do not make a personal attack on a Minister or colleague, or an employee in
another public sector agency.
• As a general rule, the more senior your position is, the more discreet you
should be about contributing to public debate on social media.
• Should you accidentally put MEC’s reputation at risk, or fall prey to a
malicious attack, you should inform your manager.
Sharing of MEC posts
MEC staff are welcome and encouraged to follow, like and share MEC social media
posts.
Social media - professional use
Spokespeople must:
•
Liaise with the Communications team before responding to any media
enquiries.
under the Official Information Act 1982
•
Work with the Communications team to respond openly, honestly and
promptly to media enquiries.
•
Keep their manager aware of the media issues they are working on.
•
Seek advice from Legal Services when in doubt about legal issues and
Finance where there may be financial implications.
•
Alert the Communications team if they have any – even informal –
Released
interaction with a member of the media on the same or related subject to a
media response they have been involved with.
Posting
• Only an authorised media spokesperson should post on publicly available
social media sites on behalf of MEC for work reasons. This includes
commenting on someone else’s site as well as on a MEC-initiated site.
• The post must be peer reviewed by another appropriate staff member to
ensure that it’s appropriate to post and to check the content’s facts, tone,
spelling and grammar.
Page 2 of 3
• Posts should present MEC as a professional and collaborative organisation.
• Posts must not breach privacy, copyright or any other laws.
• A ‘no surprises’ approach should be taken, in line with our media policy.
‘Likes’, ‘reactions’, ‘follows’ and sharing
Likes, reactions, follows and sharing of other’s social media sites and posts from a
MEC profile should be made with care and remain politically and commercially
neutral.
Request for information
Any request for information made to MEC via our social media presence should be
responded to promptly and in accordance with the Official Information Act.
Setting up a social media presence/channel
Any new MEC social media presence requires the express permission of the
Manager Communications, the relevant business unit DCE and the Chief
Executive.
The presence should have terms of use, including hours of monitoring. It must
clearly state that it is supported by MEC and should link to
ethniccommuniities.govt.nz and any other relevant MEC communication channels.
Ongoing management of a social media presence/channel
The presence must be managed in collaboration with the Communications team or
media spokespeople.
under the Official Information Act 1982
Released
Page 3 of 3
Document Outline
