Book Ban Backfires

The leader of the New Zealand National Party, Don Brash, has resigned in the wake of a party backlash over his attempt to ban a book by investigative journalist Nicky Hager. Last week Brash gained an injunction from the High Court of New Zealand banning anyone in the country from publishing the content of his emails. Hager's book, The Hollow Men: A Study in the Politics of Deception, was set to be released last Tuesday but was blocked by the injunction. Based on internal National Party material, including Brash's emails, the book investigates the party's links with the Exclusive Brethren and U.S. neoconservatives. Brash has indicated that he will allow Hager's book to be published within days but claimed his resignation was totally unrelated to the book. "My own opinion is that it was partly Don Brash leaving and it was partly other people pushing him," Hager said.