The Office of the Privacy Commissioner and Auckland Arts Festival present:

Orwell’s 1984: A book, a film, a play… and now a reality? Privacy perspectives from the arts, media and a State Watchdog

Wed 14 March 2018, 12.30-1.30 pm - Ellen Melville Pioneer Women’s Hall, Freyberg Place, Auckland

This free event coincides with the Auckland Arts Festival and Auckland Theatre Company season of a theatrical adaptation of George Orwell’s cautionary classic 1984, which comes to New Zealand after a smash-hit run across the world. Seventy years since the book hit the shelves, is there more to say about this dystopian touchstone of privacy, surveillance and identity?

We invite you to find out.

Chairing our distinguished, informed and provocative panel is Tim McBride, author of the New Zealand Civil Rights Handbook - a champion of civil liberties and privacy since the 1970s and whose 1987 report resulted in the Privacy Act 1993.

The panel comprises one of the play’s leading performers, Terence Crawford, who plays O’Brien, the main antagonist of Winston Smith. Terence is an adjunct professor at the University of Adelaide. He is uniquely placed for this discussion, not only because of his role in the show, but from his experience as an academic and as a broad reader of Orwell's work.

Well-known blogger, media commentator and presenter Russell Brown also joins the panel. Brown’s insights into media behaviour and the contemporary digital environment and his background in tech journalism place him well to tell whether New Zealand has its own “Ministries of Truth”.

Completing the panel is Cheryl Gwyn, Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security, who is responsible for overseeing our intelligence and security agencies. Or perhaps we should say she looks over the shoulder of Big Brother?