New Zealanders For Julian Assange - E-mail Correspondence Received? DSMA-Notice?
Alan William Preston made this Official Information request to Radio New Zealand Limited
This request has had an unusual response, and requires attention from the FYI team.
From: Alan William Preston
Dear Radio New Zealand Limited,
Kia ora.
New Zealanders For Julian Assange is an informal community ( 602 members on our Facebook group ) that was advocating for the release of multi-award winning Australian journalist and publisher Julian Assange from London's Belmarsh Maximum Security Prison from January 2021 until his release on the 24th of June 2024.
Between January 2021 and October 2021 we were sending e-mails from our previous address : '[email address]' and since October 2021 we have been sending emails from '[email address]' to Radio New Zealand with information about significant developments in this case and with links to supporting documents and contact details for key people who are involved in this case who would have been appropriate interview subjects.
I have personally made several phone calls to Radio New Zealand to request acknowledgement that the e-mails we sent you were received but these requests have never been responded to.
New Zealanders For Julian Assange have never received any acknowledgement for ANY of the e-mails we have sent, nor were any of our requests for coverage of significant developments or interviews with key people involved in this case ever carried out.
We hereby request any record of e-mails from '[email address]' and '[email address]' that were received by Radio New Zealand and any internal documents that mention 'Aotearoa4Assange' or 'New Zealanders For Julian Assange' .
The addresses we sent e-mails to were : [email address], [email address], [email address], [email address], [email address], [email address], [email address], [email address], [email address], [email address],
We were specifically trying to raise awareness about our non-compliance by the U.K. government, our co-signatory to the Agreement Against Arbitrary Detention in State to State Relations which New Zealand and the U.K. signed in February 2021, along with the governments of fifty other nations , by their refusal to respond in accordance with the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention and the Special Rapporteur on Tortures' rulings on this case in which this award winning Australian journalist was ARBITRARILY detained in conditions deemed to be PSYCHOLOGICAL TORTURE for 14 years.
It was extremely concerning to New Zealanders For Julian Assange that our state-funded media provided NO coverage on this aspect of this story - that should otherwise have been of significant interest and concern to the people of New Zealand as it relates to transparency and accountability as fundamental aspects of our democratic system of governance.
Please provide any internal documents that relate the imposition of a DSMA-Notice (Defence and Security Media Advisory Notice in respect to reporting on Julian Assange.
Yours faithfully,
Alan William Preston for New Zealanders for Julian Assange.
https://sites.google.com/view/newzealand...
From: Alan William Preston
Dear Radio New Zealand Limited,
It seems there is a breakdown in your communications procedures as our request has not received a response. We have called Radio New Zealand twice over the last week and were assured that someone would get back to us - no one has..
Yours faithfully,
Alan William Preston
From: OIA Requests
Radio New Zealand Limited
Good morning Alan, RNZ needs to acknowledge your OIA however we are uncertain what it is about. There are no issues or questions within this email that guides us to respond to anything. Please can you expand on your request.
Kind regards
OIA Administrator RNZ
[email address]
show quoted sections
From: Alan William Preston
Dear OIA Requests,
1: We hereby request any record of e-mails from '[email address]' and '[email address]' that were received by Radio New Zealand and any internal documents that mention 'Aotearoa4Assange' or 'New Zealanders For Julian Assange' .
2:
Please provide any internal documents that relate the imposition of a DSMA-Notice (Defence and Security Media Advisory Notice in respect to reporting on Julian Assange.
Yours faithfully,
Alan William Preston for New Zealanders for Julian Assange.
From: OIA Requests
Radio New Zealand Limited
Acknowledged as received
show quoted sections
From: OIA Requests
Radio New Zealand Limited
Hello again Alan, can you please fill in the highlighted bits as we have
no reference to guide us
Kind regards
OIA Co-ordinator
show quoted sections
From: Alan William Preston
Dear OIA Requests,
The request is pretty straightforward written using clear
unambiguous language .
Yours sincerely,
Alan William Preston
From: George Bignell
Radio New Zealand Limited
Kia ora Mr Preston
With respect to your OIA request below, please find attached a file of
emails held at RNZ mentioning either 'Aotearoa4Assange' or 'New Zealanders
For Julian Assange'. As the request received from you only detailed
"[email address]" in the first question we were unable to take this aspect
of your request any further.
RNZ was unable to find any documents relating to a DSMA-Notice as outlined
in the second aspect of your request.
Finally with respect to earlier correspondence, RNZ was unable to locate
any earlier OIA requests from you on these topics. While you have
provided details of a request initiated on October 15, RNZ has no record
of receiving that request, hence it was not acknowledged.
You have a right to seek an investigation and review by the Ombudsman of
this decision. Information about how to make a complaint is available at
[1]www.ombudsman.parliament.nz or freephone 0800 802 602.
Ngā mihi
George Bignell
RNZ, PO Box 123, Wellington, New Zealand, 6140
DDI +64 4 474 1424
Mobile: +64 27 491 2246
[2]www.rnz.co.nz
show quoted sections
From: Alan William Preston
Dear George Bignell,
" With respect to your OIA request below, please find attached a file of
emails held at RNZ mentioning either 'Aotearoa4Assange' or 'New Zealanders
For Julian Assange'.
N.B. NO SUCH FILE WAS ATTACHED
As the request received from you only detailed "[email address]" ( ??? ) in the first question we were unable to take this aspect of your request any further.
THE REQUEST WAS TO ASCERTAIN WHETHER RADIO NEW ZEALAND EVER RECEIVED ANY OF THE EMAILS SENT FROM : "[email address]" AND "[email address]"
IT SEEMS HIGHLY UNUSUAL THAT OUR INITIAL REQUEST SENT ON THE 15TH OF OCTOBER 2024 ( COPIED BELOW) WAS NEVER RECEIVED BY RADIO NEW ZEALAND but THAT THE RESPONSE LIMIT WAS EXTENDED TO THE 18TH OF DECEMBER 2024.
WHAT IS GOING ON HERE ?
https://fyi.org.nz/request/28764-new-zea...
From: Alan William Preston
October 15, 2024
Dear Radio New Zealand Limited,
Kia ora.
New Zealanders For Julian Assange is an informal community ( 602 members on our Facebook group ) that was advocating for the release of multi-award winning Australian journalist and publisher Julian Assange from London's Belmarsh Maximum Security Prison from January 2021 until his release on the 24th of June 2024.
Between January 2021 and October 2021 we were sending e-mails from our previous address : '[email address]' and since October 2021 we have been sending emails from '[email address]' to Radio New Zealand with information about significant developments in this case and with links to supporting documents and contact details for key people who are involved in this case who would have been appropriate interview subjects.
I have personally made several phone calls to Radio New Zealand to request acknowledgement that the e-mails we sent you were received but these requests have never been responded to.
New Zealanders For Julian Assange have never received any acknowledgement for ANY of the e-mails we have sent, nor were any of our requests for coverage of significant developments or interviews with key people involved in this case ever carried out.
We hereby request any record of e-mails from '[email address]' and '[email address]' that were received by Radio New Zealand and any internal documents that mention 'Aotearoa4Assange' or 'New Zealanders For Julian Assange' .
The addresses we sent e-mails to were : [email address], [email address], [email address], [email address], [email address], [email address], [email address], [email address], [email address], [email address],
We were specifically trying to raise awareness about our non-compliance by the U.K. government, our co-signatory to the Agreement Against Arbitrary Detention in State to State Relations which New Zealand and the U.K. signed in February 2021, along with the governments of fifty other nations , by their refusal to respond in accordance with the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention and the Special Rapporteur on Tortures' rulings on this case in which this award winning Australian journalist was ARBITRARILY detained in conditions deemed to be PSYCHOLOGICAL TORTURE for 14 years.
It was extremely concerning to New Zealanders For Julian Assange that our state-funded media provided NO coverage on this aspect of this story - that should otherwise have been of significant interest and concern to the people of New Zealand as it relates to transparency and accountability as fundamental aspects of our democratic system of governance.
Please provide any internal documents that relate the imposition of a DSMA-Notice (Defence and Security Media Advisory Notice in respect to reporting on Julian Assange.
Yours faithfully,
Alan William Preston for New Zealanders for Julian Assange. 20th of December 2024
[email address]
( writing while traveling in South Africa ) .
https://sites.google.com/view/newzealand...
Yours sincerely,
Alan William Preston
From: George Bignell
Radio New Zealand Limited
I’m off on Christmas break and am next in the office on Tuesday, January
7, 2025. If you need something urgently, for legal issues it’s
[1][email address], for property issues it’s
[2][email address], for complaints it’s [3][email address]
and if it requires executive attention [4][email address]. I’ll
reply on my return. Cheers George
Emails sent by Radio New Zealand Limited (RNZ) or any related entity,
including any attachments, may be confidential, protected by copyright
and/or subject to privilege. If you receive an email from RNZ in error,
please inform the sender immediately, delete it from your system and do
not use, copy or disclose any of the information in that email for any
purpose. Emails to/from RNZ may undergo email filtering and virus
scanning, including by third party contractors. However, RNZ does not
guarantee that any email or any attachment is secure, error-free or free
of viruses or other unwanted or unexpected inclusions. The views expressed
in any non-business email are not necessarily the views of RNZ.
www.rnz.co.nz
References
Visible links
1. mailto:[email address]
2. mailto:[email address]
3. mailto:[email address]
4. mailto:[email address]
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