Govt condemns terrorist stunt

Security staff examine rugby fans' bags on the way in to last night's Chiefs versus Crusaders game in Hamilton. Photo / Christine Cornege

A newspaper has been widely condemned for sending mock terrorists into Super 14 rugby games last weekend.

The Government, police, stadium managers and media commentators attacked the Sunday-Star Times for sending people to matches at Waikato Stadium and Christchurch's AMI Stadium with fake explosives.

The newspaper is standing by its actions.

Police Minister Judith Collins said the Government was not going to respond to the paper's stunt by imposing onerous security measures on sports fans.

Police say it does not appear any crime was committed when the mock terrorists gained access to public areas, a players' tunnel and corporate hospitality areas without police knowledge.

But Mrs Collins said the their presence could have led to panic and injury.

"If they were trying to make some point that Kiwis go to rugby games and they don't get treated like they're all potential terrorists - well, so what?" Mrs Collins told the Weekend Herald.

"I am not prepared to say that [at] our provincial Super 14 rugby games, or our school rugby, or any other rugby games or sporting events, that spectators should have to go through aviation-type security with body checks in case there is some idiot from the Sunday Star-Times behaving like they did.

"This is New Zealand. It's not Kabul. We shouldn't have to put up with that."

The Fairfax-owned Star-Times said its investigation was carefully considered and done under strict protocols.

"We have discussed our investigations with police and stand by our offer to debrief them and the minister in order to assist with fixing flaws we have exposed in security levels," said managing editor Mitchell Murphy.

Mrs Collins' statement that the newspaper arranged for groups of people dressed as terrorists to infiltrate stadiums was completely false, Mr Mitchell said.

Mrs Collins implied there could be consequences if the Star-Times repeated its actions.

"For a newspaper that wants to be accredited for the Rugby World Cup, they are not acting in a way which gives people a lot of confidence about their behaviour."

Journalism Associate Professor Jim Tully, of Canterbury University, said it was difficult to see what the paper was expecting from its actions in the form of serious journalism.

"Nobody is going to have security measures in place this far out from the [2011 Rugby] World Cup. So testing them now is premature and, on the surface, rather stupid," he said.

Bryan Pearson, chief executive of Vbase, managers of AMI Stadium, said he had talked to the newspaper, but found its explanation unsatisfactory, "when today in New Zealand there is no threat or risk of that sort".

"We will read their article with interest then consider our position from there."

Waikato Stadium's management were furious over what the Star-Times had done.

Olly Te Ua, event facilities manager for Hamilton City Council, said he was told by a Star-Times journalist after the fact that he took mock explosives and a detonator in a backpack into the ground last Friday.