Privacy, copyright and accessibility

Social media

Terms of use 

New Zealand Ministry of Defence is the Government’s lead civilian advisor on defence. We also purchase major equipment which becomes a capability when it is used by service men and women of the New Zealand Defence Force.

We use social media to share information about defence in New Zealand, to enable conversations and feedback, and to be responsive to the views and needs of New Zealanders.

Our followers can expect to receive regular updates including:

• News and information about the New Zealand Ministry of Defence
• Information about purchasing major equipment
• Invitations to provide feedback on specific issues
• Information about recruitment
• Social media channels

These terms of use apply to all of our social media accounts. We invite you to connect with us (New Zealand Ministry of Defence) on: 

LinkedIn 

Youtube

At different times we may operate other social media channels for a specific purpose or audience.

Acceptable use

We reserve the right to remove content posted to our social media accounts that:

• is deemed offensive, abusive or obscene
• is not relevant
• is potentially libellous
• constitutes unlawful use of imagery that violates copyright or breach of a licence agreement
• links to sites that may be obscene, abusive, offensive or indecent
• has political bias
• constitutes spam
• refers to any commercial activity, including advertising.

We may report, block, or ban anyone who posts the above content or comments, or who breaches the terms of use of the relevant social media platform:

• Facebook Statement of Rights and Responsibilities

• Facebook Community Standards

• LinkedIn User Agreement

• YouTube Community Guidelines

Engagement

We welcome feedback and ideas from our followers and try to join these conversations where possible. However, we do not guarantee individual replies to every comment, post, or direct message.

Monitoring

Our social media accounts are monitored between 9am–5pm on business days, and periodically in the evenings and on weekends and public holidays.

Use of social media by Ministry employees

Employees of the Ministry of Defence are free to engage in social media in their personal lives. Any opinions or views expressed in these posts or discussions belong to the individual staff member.

Our political neutrality

The Ministry is politically neutral. We do not advocate for a particular political party, and our social media channels will not be used to promote any party’s political messages or other content.

We reserve the right to remove any comments that may compromise our obligation to maintain political neutrality.

Our approach to connections on social media

The Ministry may choose to 'follow', 'like' or otherwise establish connections with other organisations and individuals using social media.

Once ‘liked’ or ‘followed’, we will not remove a profile from its network unless there is reason to do so, e.g. because it poses a significant and material risk to our reputation and credibility, or there is a significant and material breach of our obligations to maintain political neutrality. Each case will be considered on its own merits.

Endorsement

The Ministry does not implicitly or explicitly endorse any individual or organisation merely by creating a social media connection, regardless of the terms used by social media providers such as 'follow' or 'like'.

We will maintain social media connections with individuals and organisations that are critical and/or have opposing views. We do not hold any responsibility for the content of such profiles. 

Crown copyright

This website and its contents - including pages, documents, graphics, audio and video - are subject to copyright laws of New Zealand and, through international treaties, other countries. The copyright is owned by the New Zealand Ministry of Defence, or the New Zealand Defence Force (unless the content is identified as being the property of another party).

Crown copyright ©. Website copyright work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence. In essence, you are free to copy, distribute and adapt the work, as long as you attribute the work to the Ministry of Defence and abide by the other licence terms. 

Any use of flags, emblems, names or words protected by the Flags, Emblems, and Names Protection Act 1981  must not infringe any provision of that Act.

For questions on attributing work to the Ministry of Defence please email info@defence.govt.nz, or phone +64 4 496-0999. 

Accessibility

This website and its content have been developed with reference to the New Zealand Government Web Standards. 

Disclaimer

While every care has been taken to ensure the accuracy of the content of this site, the Ministry of Defence makes no representation as to the accuracy, correctness or fitness for any purpose of the site content. Nor does the Ministry accept any liability for loss or damage (including consequential loss or damage), however caused, which may be incurred by any person or organisation from reliance on or use of information on this site.

If you believe any information on the website is inaccurate please let us know.

The contents of this website should not be construed as legal advice. It is not intended to take the place of, or to represent the written law of, New Zealand or other official guidelines or requirements.

Links or references to other websites, including the use of information from Google Maps, are provided for the benefit of our site users. The Ministry is not responsible for the accuracy of the content on the sites we link to and does not endorse any commercial organisations.

If you have any queries please email info@defence.govt.nz.