A Moral Truth: 150 years of investigative journalism in New Zealand opens with an extract from Te Hokioi, which the book's editor, James Hollings, describes as the first truly independent Maori newspaper. The paper's editor, Wiremu Patara Te Tuhi discovered on the eve of the Waikato Wars in 1863 that a large new "school" built by the government well within the King Country's borders was in fact a military fort.
It was a case of a government and its military speaking the language of peace but involved in the machinations of war; a story that will be familiar to those who have read this year's Hit and Run by Jon Stephenson and Nicky Hager.
James Hollings says Te Tuhi's story has all the elements of good investigative journalism.
"It brought hidden facts to light, it verified those facts, it put those facts to the authorities at the time and questioned them. It was a remarkable piece of journalism."
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Jim Tucker, Rebecca Macfie and editor James Hollings discuss the current state of journalism in New Zealand and some of the stories featured in A Moral Truth. Listen to the full RNZ interview here.
