Tens of thousands of farmers jamming 57 towns with utes, tractors, and harvesters on Friday was by far the news story of the week.

by Peter Cresswell, Jeremy Fisher, David Round, Robert Stanmore, Tim Wikiriwhi

Free speech under attack explains the struggle for free-speech in England over several centuries and how it was an established by the time British law came to New Zealand in 1840.  In the 21^st century, new forces have arisen to try to limit free speech on the grounds that certain statements might offend minorities. In fact, offending people is one of the by-products of free speech and is no argument for restricting it. The current moves to limit free speech on such spurious grounds as "religious hate speech" laws are the work of power elites whose eventual aim is to limit, if not altogether abolish, the right to criticise powerful minorities, and indeed, authority itself.

When Don Brash was “uninvited” on August 7 to a speaking engagement at Massey University, Vice-Chancellor Jan Thomas cited “security concerns” as a reason. But emails released under the Official Information Act revealed that the Vice-Chancellor’s “concerns” had festered for weeks and they were nothing to do with security.