22 November 2008
France keeps legal gag on Rainbow Warrior spies footage
1 September 2006
By Rebecca Gardiner: Te Waha Nui Online
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More then 20 years after the sinking of the Rainbow Warrior, the French government is still trying to block New Zealand public access to the court footage.
Earlier this month the Court of Appeal upheld a 2005 court ruling granting TVNZ permission to air footage of the French spies’ guilty pleas.
However, days after it was shown the court ordered its removal from the station’s website and stated that no further broadcasts must be shown in the media.
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Dr David Robie was working as a freelance journalist during the 1985 trial of the saboteurs Alain Mafart and Dominique Prieur and has written a book Eyes of Fire: the Last Voyage of the Rainbow Warrior.
He believes the August 7 ruling was a “triumph for freedom of information in New Zealand” and says it’s an “outrage” the footage was pulled from New Zealand screens.
“It’s an iconic moment in New Zealand history,” he says.
“It’s really important that we have the visual of the French agents’ guilty pleas.
“To the credit of TVNZ, they stuck with it. It’s vital to have it in the public domain.”
Dr Robie was interviewed on TV One’s Breakfast Show but the video recording has since been removed from the station’s website for “legal reasons”.
He believes the trial footage highlights the “absolute outrageous audacity” of the French government in authorising the attack on the Rainbow Warrior in 1985.
“The whole thing is pretty unsavoury,” he says.
“This is another attempt by the French government to put a lid on the activity of the French spies. It’s an outrage they have yet again been able to deny access.”
Greenpeace campaign manager Cindy Baxter says blocking public access to the footage is “completely outrageous” and believes it’s another attempt by the French government to cover up the incident.
Baxter says publicly airing the trial is a “matter of principle” for Greenpeace and she applauds TVNZ for persevering with the trial.
“Good on them for taking it all the way. It’s part of New Zealand getting these people to face up to what they did,” she says.
“We just want the French government to be transparent. It’s crazy spending so much money in the courts… I’d be very surprised if the French government wasn’t paying for it.”
The Court of Appeal judges described the bombing of the Greenpeace ship as an “act of historically great significance” that needed to be recorded for future generations.
“As time passes, there will be new generations of New Zealanders who have not lived through the Rainbow Warrior affair and so will not have personal knowledge of it.”
“Their knowledge of this important event in New Zealand’s history will come through what they are told, through what they read and through what they see in the visual media. The image will have an impact that the spoken or written word will not.”
Dr Robie says public access to the court footage serves as an important reminder to New Zealanders that terrorism existed long before the September 11 attacks.
“Terrorism comes from all quarters including states and Western countries – and that should be remembered.”
A TVNZ spokesperson was unable to provide an update to the legal case.
Links:
- Eyes of Fire: The Last Voyage of the Rainbow Warrior
- TVNZ Breakfast Show on the Rainbow Warrior spies footage
- A photographer’s date with a nuclear death
- Appeal Court ruling on the spies footage
