Dear New Zealand Parole Board,

On Monday in a story on convicted pack rapist Brad Shipton's application to hav ehis parole conditions varied, it was revealed that those conditions included a prohibition on giving interviews ("Victim attempts to block Shipton's parole bid", Stuff, 14/5/2012). I'm curious about how widespread this parole condition is, so I would like to request the following information under the Official Information Act 1982:

* How many people granted parole in the past year were prohibited from giving interviews?
* A summary of the reasons for imposing such prohibitions
* A summary of the sorts of crime those people had been convicted of
* Any advice on the consistency of such restrictions with the right to freedom of expression affirmed in s14 of the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990

I would prefer to receive an electronic response. Queries about this request will be automatically forwarded to me by the fyi.org.nz website.

Yours faithfully,

Alex Harris