Cameras do lie: What really happened outside the Labour Party Conference.
By Len Richards 5 November, 2007
Television coverage by TVNZ that was shown on the TV1 news gives lie to the claims made that I hit protester Jared
Phillips with a megaphone outside the Labour Party conference on Saturday. The TV3 and Scoop footage supplied by Solidarity Union shows from a distance the swing taken by me at Jared with a megaphone. TV 1 footage taken
from the 'reverse angle' tells a fuller, truer story.
In this footage I am clearly under attack from Jared Phillips who is grabbing at the megaphone while I am attempting to
speak through it. He pushes the megaphone back into my face and my head goes back. I then swing the megaphone which goes
above Jared's head. A slow motion or frame-by-frame replay shows clear daylight between the megaphone and Jared's head.
Jared's head remains stationary because there was no contact.
This does not excuse my action, but does show that I was not wrong in my initial reaction when I said that I was not
aware of hitting anyone.
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