Stuff Protest in Christchurch

Mark Freeman

An ex-employee of Stuff who was forced out of his job because of the company’s vaccination policy has told a rally in Christchurch he is ashamed of his former employer.

More than 70 people turned out to the rally across the road from The Press building in Christchurch on Friday in protest at Stuff’s biased and defamatory coverage.

Adrian, who had worked for Stuff for 25 years, told the crowd that he lost his job because he was unvaccinated. Many of the journalists at Stuff got vaccinated out of fear of losing their jobs, and 95 per cent of the 30 staff in the printing department he worked in disagreed with the policy, he said.

Adrian said he used to be proud of working for Stuff but is now ashamed.

“[I’m] quite disgusted with the whole media industry at large … and how they report things and what they don’t report. … They really do have a duty to report both sides of any contentious subject, especially a serious subject that’s affecting all of our lives.”

Another speaker asked Stuff staff whether they thought of the lives they had destroyed with their slander and deceit. People that Stuff’s coverage has traumatised can’t “clock in and clock out” of their lives as Stuff staff do at work, he said, urging them to start telling the truth.

The rally was the third such event held outside The Press building this year. https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/127817868/protesters-take-fight-against-government-and-media-to-streets-of-christchurch.

Organiser Colin Wightman says the purpose of the protest was to focus on the damage that the “bought-out mouthpiece” Stuff has inflicted on people through defamation. Mr Wightman, who was a candidate for the Waimakariri District Council in the recent local body election, says he was “named and defamed” by Stuff in the run-up to the election. https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/129606696/third-canterbury-council-has-candidates-with-conspiracy-links.

The protest was also a promotional event for the documentary River of Lies, a film being made by Billy Te Kahika and his team in response to Stuff Circuit’s “documentary” Fire and Fury. https://youtu.be/v9E9GhCHlWY.