MEDIA RELEASE

21 November 2024
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

New Police Commissioner must ensure speech rights are at heart of law enforcement

The Free Speech Union has written to incoming Police Commissioner, Richard Chambers, congratulating him on his new role and offering support to ensure Kiwis’ speech rights are upheld in New Zealand, says Jonathan Ayling, Chief Executive of the Free Speech Union.

“Free speech is inextricable from the rule of law and our democracy. We’ve contacted Commissioner Chambers to extend our support as he ensures the speech rights of all Kiwis are upheld. We highlighted recent examples where this has not been the case within the Police force.

“We reiterated our concerns over Police training officers to ‘recognise, record, and respond’ to ‘hate speech’ and highlighted the subjective nature of dealing with ‘hate crime’ also.

“We detailed the case before the High Court against the Attorney General for the unlawful arrest of a peaceful protestor, our defense of Paul Burns, the man who was arrested for engaging in debate, and our support of the man who had Police aggressively show up at his house due to comments he made online.

“Our concern for the gang patch ban was also included as an example of current overreach in New Zealand by Police.

“We acknowledged that Police have their work cut out for them, but that censorship is not the answer to increasing tolerance and upholding democracy.

“We noted we’ve had positive engagement with the Police in the past and look forward to working with Commissioner Chambers to continue the necessary and crucial work of defending Kiwis’ speech rights.”

Find the letter to the Police Commissioner here.