Over the weekend, a local man survived a gunshot to the liver. We do not know if the attack on the young Green-affiliated figure has anything to do with politics, but what we do know is that Jack Brazil - with a bullet wound in his abdomen - asked media to respect his privacy by holding off on publishing his name.
The first outlet to name Jack was the ODT. Stuff, RNZ, and NZ Herald followed suit once the cat was out of the bag. In the opening line of their piece, the ODT wrote that “A prominent Dunedin activist and former Green Party candidate seriously injured in a shooting incident has been named. He is Jack Brazil.”
Other outlets reported Jack’s name, citing the ODT as the source, but the ODT’s source wasn’t specified. While they have every right to protect their sources, Jowan, a third year, said that “anyone in the activist community knew… that keeping it low profile was what was wished by the victim.” Someone’s right to privacy can be waived if they are a public figure, but the decision to do so still falls on the publication itself. Critic Te Ārohi wanted to understand how that decision was made.
When asked for the ODT’s editorial rationale, their Editor gave us a one-line answer: “I have been asked to provide you with the following statement in response to your questions: The Otago Daily Times stands by our editorial decision making over the coverage regarding the shooting on the weekend." It’s not clear who made the call to name Jack in the article – was it the author, or a superior? It’s also not clear who made the call to give us this answer.
The ODT didn’t disclose whether they’d had any direct contact with Jack (for example, to ask his permission for naming) and also chose not to explain their engagement with police. A police spokesperson told Critic on April 18 that “we have not released the victim's identity and in fact requested that stories naming him be removed yesterday, however media did not comply with our request.” We’ve named Jack as well, but this is after a public fundraiser for his recovery was set up by the co-op Yours, with his name and face on it (Jack is involved with Yours), and checking with a person close to Jack. It was from this co-op that Jack initially sought refuge from the shooting and soon after made a trip to the hospital, and the co-op’s Moray Place address was later searched by armed police.
The ODT opened a later article with the statement, “Police say the shooting… was an isolated incident, despite it being the fourth Dunedin firearms incident in two months.” Critic asked why the word “despite” was included, but received no answer. The other incidents in question included an alleged firing of a shotgun, a standoff with a man with a fake gun (he had a real one in the car), and the arrest of an armed man whose accomplice, they note, “is still at large.” None of these events are necessarily connected to Jack’s shooting.
“The way they wrote that piece definitely made me feel like it was politically motivated,” said a reader who popped by our office. And it could very well have been political, but at this stage, nothing is confirmed. A source close to Jack told us that “the article’s framing of it being politically motivated is unsubstantiated… [it was] completely unprofessional and showed no respect for his privacy.” Linea, another third-year in the activist community, told us that “if it's politically motivated, naming him just draws more attention and makes it into a huge deal… I'm sure it was already scary and traumatising as is.”
Jack is making a recovery and Yours reopened on Wednesday night, which had Jowan “feeling great about some of the community responses [and] the manaakitanga towards the victim and each other.”