Tag: Paula Penfold

Stuff Circuit’s chilling and timely voice from the grave

In the end, the timing was impeccable. The day Chinese premier Li Qiang arrived on a state visit, Stuff dropped a bombshell announcing its documentary on the superpower’s New Zealand interference operations that have been going on for decades.

The documentary The Long Game (and daily revelations from it printed in Stuff newspapers) paint a picture of agents of influence, spying on the local Chinese community, and allegations of sabotage and intimidation. After the programme’s release, the Interparliamentary Alliance on China (co-chaired by National and Labour) called for a select committee inquiry into foreign interference.

This was powerful journalism from the Stuff Circuit team. Yet The Long Game was a documentary from the dead, and one that almost failed to claw its way out of the grave.

The Stuff Circuit team had already been disbanded when it screened. The team had included investigative journalist Paula Penfold, senior producer Louisa Cleave, editor Toby Longbottom and cameraman Phil Johnson but only Penfold remained employed by Stuff. The rest of the team had been gone for months.

The Long Game was its last project, but legal and editorial caution almost prevented the documentary (and the series of print articles that had been prepared at the same time by Penfold and Cleave) from seeing the light of day. Continue reading “Stuff Circuit’s chilling and timely voice from the grave” →

Latter-day anarchists throw digital bombs at journalists

Every journalist that ‘outs’ a conspiracy theorist or extremist paints a target on their own back. 

The anti-truth brigade thrives in dark places and shining a light on it and its associates is doing a public service. Yet it comes at a cost.

The tone of abuse that it generates is even darker than the places from which it emanates. Journalists – particularly female journalists – are being subjected to taunts and threats on an unprecedented scale and in forms that are deeply disturbing.

Paula Penfold of the Stuff Circuit team that produced the documentary Fire and Fury, which unmasked many of those behind the February-March protest in Parliament grounds, revealed in the Sunday Star Times last weekend that since its appearance she has been targeted with death threats, abuse “and, unsurprisingly, conspiracy theories”. She told the newspaper: “I’ve had lots before but never as many or as ugly or as threatening than after this documentary.”

Penfold’s situation was outlined in an article about the abuse three female Stuff journalists had endured for doing their jobs. Alongside Penfold were Kirsty Johnston, who revealed MP Sam Uffindell’s record at King’s College, and Andrea Vance, currently revealing the anti- brigade’s associations with local body candidates. Continue reading “Latter-day anarchists throw digital bombs at journalists” →