Terabytes of data at centre of far-right media’s legal challenge

Thursday, 11 July 2024

Charges against Counterspin broadcasters Kelvyn Alp and Hannah Spierer are mired in a pre-trial issue over confidentiality of material buried in a mountain of data.

Alp and Spierer were accused of sharing a link to a documentary about terrorism, which was allegedly objectionable, their lawyer said.

They said they were journalists and had a right to protect certain sources who were promised they would not be identified. The pair founded and hosted Counterspin Media.

At the High Court in Wellington on Thursday Justice Paul Radich was told police extracted more than 14 terabytes of data from dozens of devices seized from Alp and Spierer.

Their lawyer, Tim Leighton, compared 14 terabytes to the data on 20,000 standard optical discs.

Having been told a privileges claim will be made, police have to stop searching the material, secure it and deliver it, or a copy of it, to the court that was to decide the privileges claim and the person claiming privilege.

The person claiming privilege was supposed to list the items they wanted protected but Leighton said so far police had not provided the material in a form that could be searched.

They had tried to do it the police way using police software and processes, but police software had restructured the contents so an email, the text, and any attachments were separated.

The practical effect was that in the meantime the devices were off limits to everyone, Leighton agreed.

But the lawyer for police, Vicki Squires, said it was for Alp and Spierer to decide how they would detail their claim.

They should use the technology that had been provided, which included search tools which were not being used at the moment, she said.

The judge reserved his decision.