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New Zealand First leader (and former Hunua MP) Winston Peters is publicly weighing into the debate over a Facebook post about Indian migration to New Zealand that saw a woman reported to police.
As the Times reported, a New Zealand woman was contacted by police over a recent Facebook post she made about immigration.
Late last month she posted a photo on her Facebook page that showed two men of Indian appearance sitting behind her in what may have been a café with the caption, “Welcome to New India thanks to Luxsingh”, referring to Prime Minister and Botany MP Christopher Luxon.
Her post has received more than 2800 comments and has been reported on by publications including The Times of India and Indian Weekender.
A subsequent news report by The Noticer states police tracked the woman down and spoke to her about her Facebook post.
In the online news story is a brief audio recording of what’s described as a phone call between a police officer and the woman’s mother.
The officer says she needs to speak to the woman about her Facebook posts as some people had taken them “not that great” and complained to police about them.
The officer says she will visit the woman before the recording of the phone call ends.
Waikato District Commander, Superintendent Scott Gemmell, says police received a report about a post that had been made on social media, which had caused offence to the person who reported it.
“Enquiries were carried out, which included speaking to the person whose name had been provided as the poster.
“Ultimately, there was insufficient evidence for any type of prosecution in relation to the matter. The person who made the post was provided with advice.”
Winston Peters has taken to social media to share his views on the matter.
He says the woman’s Facebook post was “not threatening, not inciting violence, just that it allegedly offended someone”.
“If this report is true, this is ‘1984 thought-police’ level overreach. It should seriously frighten every New Zealander who believes in freedom of speech.
“This is not about whether this particular post was offensive or not.
“There will always be personal responsibility and consequences for people voicing their opinions that are viewed by some as tasteless or gormless or offensive, but those consequences should not be by way of a police visit.
“No one has the right to not be offended, nor do they have the right to be protected from having hurt feelings.
“In fact it is precisely the right to be able to offend which is the foundation of freedom of speech in our country.
“This has happened overseas with more regularity where social media posts, opinions, views, expressions, and even jokes are now deemed offensive by some authoritarian power and have been met with threats from police, arrests, or even convictions in court.
“We never thought we would see this happen here and it has a chilling effect on where we are going as a country.”
Peters says people don’t have to agree with each other’s opinions, “but we should all fight for each other’s right to have them.
“This is the essential foundation of our free democracy. If we start to accept this kind of overreach by police to curtail individual freedom of speech, our democracy will fall into the type of totalitarian oblivion that will destroy our country.”
