Trailer for the Jeremy Scahill film Dirty Wars about the hidden truth over America's covert wars.
INDEPENDENT investigative journalist Jon Stephenson called it a “moral victory”. The Herald on Sunday described it as a “vindication” in an editorial.
And for many New Zealand journalists it was a humiliation of the military even before the defamation case was over.
Although the jury couldn’t make up its mind on whether it was defamation, the NZ Defence Force chief, Lieutenant-General Rhys Jones, had already conceded the factual issues, the smear webpage against Stephenson had been removed and the military had pledged to make public statement accepting the journalist’s version of events in his reports of New Zealand’s role in the “dirty war” in Afghanistan.
An independent journalist had taken on the might of the Defence Force with its battery of lawyers and legal resources – and won.
Jon Stephenson’s credibility was intact, the Defence Force’s credibility in tatters. But at what price?