Lincoln Tan on Press Freedom

Lincoln Tan writes in the NZ Herald on how proud he has been in the past of NZ’s high ranking for press freedom, but the Beehive incident involving Nick Wang blots that record:

The case could have just been between an overzealous Chinese civil servant and an inexperienced diplomatic protection squad officer had it not been for Cullen jumping to the defence of the police action and of his Chinese counterpart.

Cullen said Wang was removed because he was creating a disturbance, but video showed that nothing of that sort happened.

New Zealand’s reputation for upholding democracy and freedom of speech was also dealt a blow with Cullen’s defence of the police actions and unjustified claims that Wang had caused a disturbance.

A true friend would help steer China towards doing this, rather than do a Cullen and defend efforts to push its head further into the sand.