RNZ: Sunday Morning

Edward Snowden's latest revelations were a huge embarrassment for the UK Government. Foreign politicians and diplomats attending two G20 Summit meetings in London in 2009 had their phone calls monitored and their computers intercepted, on UK Government instructions. Wayne looks at the background of spying, British style, and raises some new questions. Chris follows up with Thomas Beagle of the NZ Council for Civil Liberties and American history professor Norman Pollack.

Elected representatives enjoying corporate hospitality is a contentious issue as four labour MP's found recently.

Michael Green, who died last year, was a former NZ High Commissioner in Fiji. His tour of duty coincided with shifts in Fiji politics that would lead to the 2006 military coup that established Commodore Frank Bainimarama as the country's leader. Michael wrote a book about his experience and his wife, Gillian Green, talks to Chris about their years in Fiji - until the unexpected announcement of Michaels' change in diplomatic status to Persona Non Grata (unwelcome person) in 2007. Persona Non Grata - Breaking the Bond: New Zealand and Fiji 2004-2007, by Michael Green, is published by Dunmore Publishing Ltd.

Wellingtonian Murdoch Stephens this week launched the Doing Our Bit Campaign, aimed at convincing New Zealanders of the need to double our refugee quota from the current 750 to 1500. Murdoch tells Chris about how stumbling across a stash of 1000 photos of Afghan refugees in an abandoned detention centre in Iran led him to the conclusion that New Zealand wasn't doing its bit. The photographs are part of a forthcoming exhibition at Pataka in Porirua. And Mary Mowbray, who came to New Zealand after surviving the Holocaust in hiding in Budapest, reflects on adapting to life in New Zealand and being one of the many Kiwis who volunteer to help out newly arrived refugees.

Some of New Zealand's best reggae artists are joining forces to help fight child abuse, with the release of the Herbs' song, 'Sensitive to a Smile'. All proceeds from the single by Aotearoa Reggae Allstars will go to Mana Ririki, a charitable organisation with a mission to eliminate Maori child abuse. It was set up in 2007 after the death of Nia Glassie. Today Chris talks to Mana Ririki executive director Anton Blank who believes Maori must take responsibility for the issue, and solutions must be Maori-led.

Sizing up the 'polar blast'; Mediaworks calls in the receivers; Sky outbid for soccer; the end of the line for Truth - and a look back at its past; a reporter responds to controversial claims about women in political journalism.

Richard Towle is the UNHCR - the UN Refugee Agency - Regional Representative for Australia, New Zealand, PNG and the Pacific. The organisations's annual Global Trends report, released this week, covered displacement that occurred during 2012 and found that more people are refugees or internally displaced than at any time since 1994, with the crisis in Syria having emerged as a major new factor. Richard talks to Chris about the need for a peaceful, political solution to the crisis as the humanitarian response struggles to meet the needs of those forced to flee.

Philippa Tolley investigates support for those with a disability and looks at a review underway.

The Mediawatch team runs through listeners' queries and comments and updates recent stories from the programme. This month: The cartoon controversy; fact and opinion in political reporting; the death of diversity in Dunedin; birdcall bungle slapdown; Morning Report's blast form the past; too many species of kiwi; charitable companies; the return of the Tsar; hammering Hanmer pronunciation.

Reports that a US secret court ordered the Verizon phone company to hand over to the National Security Agency millions of phone records, and subsequent revelations that the agency taps directly into the servers of nine internet firms has astonished and angered many governments and the international public. Wayne looks at some of the implications and Chris follows up with Christopher Pyle, a US professor of constitutional law, and Andrew Levine, formerly a Professor of Political Philosophy who has written many books and articles in that field, and also contributed to the recent publication,  Barak Obama and the Politics of Illusion, that is related to the website Counterpunch.

Tim Brodhead was from 1995 to 2011 President and Chief Executive Officer of the J.W. McConnell Family Foundation, based in Montreal. The mission of the Foundation is to create a more resilient society by enhancing inclusion, sustainability and social innovation.

The anti-flouride movement has been victorious in convincing the Hamilton council to have a flouride-free water supply. Wellington is their next target.

New Zealanders give billions of tax-deductible dollars to charities each year and businesses owned by charitable trusts generate millions of dollars of tax free profits. As a result, hundreds of millions of dollars that would otherwise go into the consolidated fund are diverted to charities.

Dr Negar Partow is an expert on Middle East politics, religion, human rights and international security. She talks to Chris about the Iranian presidential election which takes place on June 14 - the factions, the issues, and the likely impact on Iran's foreign policy. Dr Negar Partow is senior lecturer in Security Studies, Centre for Defence and Security Studies, at Massey University.

The spying scoop that scuppered a minister and put the reporter who secured the story in the spotlight; RNZ's next boss on why he wanted the job and what he hopes to achieve and the politician pilloried for comparing Key and Muldoon.