By TeKāhu

Media giant NZ Herald is receiving significant backlash for appearing to be in fear of the ‘Thug’s Veto’.

A ‘Thug’s Veto’ is when violent and/or threatening activists and/or protest groups, usually on the left of the political spectrum, force the closure, cancellation or disruption of an event they disagree with by employing intimidation or threats of violence and chaos.

This started when support group Shalom New Zealand attempted to put forward a paid advert to the corporate monolith with a plea from the Israel-expat community, who have been facing increasing rates of antisemitism within New Zealand.

The message was as follows:

The ad appears to articulate escalating concerns that, following the torture, rape and murder of around 1,400 Israeli men, women and children, there is a backlash against Jews here in New Zealand.

In a shocking move that appears to show fear, or worse, of rising Left-wing activism and anti-semitism by politicians, media and activists, the NZ Herald responded with concerns around ‘the need for extra security at the NZME offices when the letter is published’.

An excerpt of the email is below:

The Israel Institute of NZ responded to the NZ Herald’s apparent fear of reprisal with an inevitable question:

How can we trust their journalism isn’t influenced by the same thugs?

Comments have been damning of the NZ Herald’s fear:

• “This is disgraceful. I was taught in school about the holocaust, “never forget and never again”. Those lessons were cast aside after October 7th. I’m horrified that antisemitism has once again raised its incredibly ugly head.”
• “That’s a lie. They won’t run that ad because their staff supports Hamas and hates Israel.”
• “@Kiwi_Ships our main newspaper in New Zealand @nzherald refuses to run this paid advert because they say they will need extra security because they will be targeted by pro-palestinian activists. Literally reporting only news that won’t get them on the wrong side of anti Israeli mobs, seems fear tactics work on our mainstream media in NZ. That or they’re just antisemitic.”
• “Just canceled my subscription today. They simply can’t be trusted”
• “You have my support. Shameful @nzherald“
• “@nzherald what are you afraid of? Surely if the Herald is scared today to print this then it should be printed.”

Israel Institute then followed up with clear points that suggest the NZ Herald is indeed a compromised source of news:

Massey Professor of Communication, Mohan Dutta, confuses a free market with mafia-esq intimidation. Requiring extra security to publish material is not free speech; it’s a thugs veto. When @nzheraldplainly refused to publish the dictionary definition of a woman for @SpeakUp4WomenNZ, that could’ve been interpreted as their commercial/private prerogative. [It’s still outrageous and worthy of debate.]

When a newspaper is intimidated and thinks they need extra security to publish a rather tame advert, we should all be very concerned; not least of all because who knows what news they are censoring out of fear.” – Israel Institute of New Zealand

The NZ Herald appears to comply with the Thug’s Veto, and this obedience-via-fear will likely earn further accusations of being a compromised news source.

And with New Zealand’s antisemitism on the rise, there are growing fears that NZ Mainstream Media will seek to avoid more Leftwing-negative topics, as has been observed over the last several years.