Extraordinarily, a legal letter has been sent by law firm Chapman Tripp on behalf of its client, Foodstuffs North Island, to Auckland University, complaining that its (just retired) former employee, Emeritus Professor Tim Hazledine, wrote an article defaming Foodstuffs. The letter requested that the article, called Foodstuffs Wants to Merge its Co-ops, but Consumers Need the Opposite, be removed from the University's website. Business Desk also reports, "Foodstuffs North Island has made legal moves to silence an academic critical of its proposed merger". Here is that legal letter for your perusal (it is attached toward the end of the document):
It says Hazledine's article alleges, "Foodstuffs is currently engaged in illegal, criminal & anti-competitive practices and has entered into an anti-competitive agreement; and there are reasonable grounds to suspect that the owners or operators of Foodstuffs know that they are acting illegally and anti-competitively .. There are no defences to these imputations. The imputations are false. Even if some were clearly stated as opinions and were genuinely held by Professor Hazledine, they are not based on true facts and are not protected .. Provided these defamatory statements are removed by 5pm on 25 June 2024, this will resolve matters as far as Foodstuffs Is concerned".
I thought it wise to get the inside story straight from the horse's mouth, so asked Hazledine today what had gone on. He says that he'd been passed the above lawyers' letter and considers the defamation claim to be ridiculous - an attempt to "chill discussion" of the Foodstuff merger. It partially worked. He says, "My university’s officials caved in at once", pulling the article down from its website. So much for the New Zealand PM & Opposition Leader arguing University staff have statutory protection coming from being a "critic & conscience" of society. Hazledine says Stuff also published his opinion and was threatened by the lawyers, but ignored them (see The Post's website). What's bizarre is that his article, and the Chapman Tripp legal letter, are all embarrassingly fully publicly available right now on the NZ Commerce Commission government (".govt") website (the link is above). They form part of Hazledine's August 12, 2024, submission to the Commerce Commission. All I can say is that it appears the PM, Leaders of NZ First, and ACT, Head of the Commerce Commission, Commerce Minister & Justice Minister are all now breaking the law by posting what is alleged to be defamatory material on official government websites. Shame on them.
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