Throughout most of New Zealand's decade-long deployment in Afghanistan, the Defence Force benefited from largely uncritical reporting. The lack of media on the ground in Bamiyan province and the dearth of casualties allowed it to control the flow of information. Inconvenient questions began to be asked only when New Zealanders began to die. People wanted to understand why these deaths were occurring and to know in some detail what our soldiers were doing and how effective their involvement had been.
This sat uncomfortably with a Defence Force that, like its counterparts overseas, is extremely wary of how the media can influence public opinion to a conflict.
Serious questions have been raised about the Battle of Baghak, in which two New Zealand soldiers died. They remain largely unanswered. Now the Defence Force risks adding to its reputation for burying its head in the sand over the current charges. Investigations by this newspaper resulted in the Defence Force revealing that a soldier had been charged with planting explosive devices, which contravened the Geneva Convention. That aspect raised obvious concerns about the potential harm to the Army's reputation.
Despite repeated requests for updates on the investigation, the Herald on Sunday was not informed of the summary trial which took place this week. The officer was let off the charges due to a lack of evidence.
A subsequent terse press statement confirmed only the hearing of a charge under the Armed Forces Discipline Act that the officer had negligently failed to ensure targets would be visually identified when ordering the placement of a booby trap. The charge had been dismissed because of a lack of evidence, and the officer had been granted permanent name suppression.
