Ending Covid-19 mandates wasn't the true agenda of some key figures in this year's Wellington parliament protests, says journalist Paula Penfold.
She hopes the new Stuff Circuit doco Fire and Fury will give New Zealanders insight into the "very clever and adept communicators and manipulators" still spreading disinformation five months on.
Photo: Stuff Circuit
The fact that two people investigated for Fire and Fury are currently facing criminal charges is confirmation that we're not talking about harmless "keyboard warriors", Penfold says.
"There's a much more sinister undertone and there's a much, much, much more violent rhetoric," she tells Jesse Mulligan.
Paula Penfold in Fire & Fury Photo: STUFF
Fire and Fury shows that while some anti-mandate protestors had good, honest intentions, Penfold says, others were propagating messages and agendas largely rooted in conspiracy theories.
"They want to make the country ungovernable but they also want to access democracy from within and to make it difficult for the democratic process to play out."
The documentary's creators aren't under any illusion it will reach people who are "completely down the rabbit hole" of conspiracy theories, she says, but hope it can illustrate the manipulative nature of the messaging around them.
Even though some viewers might feel they're being condescended to or that "we don't understand what it is they understand", Penfold is hopeful Fire and Fury can help demonstrate how such manipulation works.
"We want [people targetted by disinformation campaigns] to hopefully have some insight into the fact they've been taken advantage of for reasons that are nefarious, and with that realisation hopefully some of them may be less likely to sign up for these groups."
"Viscerally awful" is how Penfold describes the menace directed at police, politicians and the media by some participants in the Wellington protests.
"These adept communicators that we're talking about have done a very efficient and convincing job of isolating people from mainstream media, from any messages of authority, because they have convinced them that we're all lying."
