Voices for Freedom (VFF) is an anti-vaccine advocacy group in New Zealand that formed in December 2020 to oppose the New Zealand Government's COVID-19 mitigation policies and vaccination rollout. The organisation is founded and led by food blogger and former Advance New Zealand candidate Claire Deeks, Libby Jonson and Alia Bland. Voices for Freedom has been criticised by NZ Skeptics, The Spinoff editor Madeleine Chapman, and "FACT Aotearoa" for spreading misinformation about COVID-19 and vaccinations.
Leadership and structure
Voices for Freedom was founded in December 2020 by food blogger and former Advance New Zealand candidate Claire Deeks, Libby Jonson and Alia Bland as "a non-political organisation focused on protecting New Zealanders' fundamental human rights with a particular focus on freedom of speech, health/medical freedom and all freedoms under attack from an overzealous and oppressive Covid-19 response."
As of 15 August 2022, VFF claimed to have 100,000 members.
The organisation's financial sources remain opaque, having spent large amounts on promotion and court cases, but claims to have received donations from "thousands of concerned Kiwis".
Communications output
Flyers
In March 2021, Voices for Freedom teamed up with the Advance NZ party to distribute a magazine called The Real News promoting conspiracy theories about the COVID-19 pandemic and vaccines, using discredited internet-based sources. The Real News is published by Full Courts Press director and shareholder Jonathan Eisen and his wife Katherine Smith, whose company has also published the pseudoscientific The New Zealand Journal of Natural Medicine and the conspiracy theory–promoting Uncensored magazine. By 12 March, at least 60,000 copies of the magazine had been distributed to postboxes. By May 2021, the VFF and Advance NZ had raised NZ$10,000 to print and distribute 60,000 copies of The Real News. The following month, a second issue of The Real News was circulated.
In late April 2021, Voices for Freedom distributed a 29-page 'COVID Response Survival Kit' questioning the safety of COVID-19 vaccines and minimising the danger posed by SARS-CoV-2. In response, University of Waikato biological scientist Alison Campbell and the University of Auckland Helen Petousis-Harris criticised the pamphlet for spreading disinformation and propaganda that did not meet the standard of scrutiny.
In mid-May 2021, Deeks claimed that the VFF had raised NZ$50,000 towards printing two million virus "fact flyers" which it intended to distribute nationwide. In response, University of Otago clinical microbiologist and immunologist James Ussher criticised the flyers for spreading disinformation about the Pfizer–BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine. Meanwhile, lawyer Mark von Dadelszen cautioned against donating to Voices for Freedom since it was neither a registered charity nor an incorporated society with a formal structure.
Advertising
In late July 2021, Voices for Freedom was banned from the social media platform Facebook for spreading misinformation related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Prior to the ban, VFF's Facebook page had attracted 12,000 followers. In response, co-founder Bland claimed that Facebook had silenced them since they were reaching half a million people each month and alleged that the Government and mainstream media were spreading misinformation about COVID-19.
In early August 2021, the VFF posted a series of advertisements on LUMO Digital Outdoor's four digital billboards in Auckland calling for submissions on the Government's hate speech legislation. Two of these digital billboards were situated outside the public broadcaster Radio New Zealand's Auckland office. Due to the group's controversial views and disinformation about COVID-19, Voice for Freedom's advertisements were removed.
On 28 April 2022, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) ruled that three Voices for Freedom billboards opposing face masks and vaccination had breached advertising regulations on social responsibility, truthful presentation and advocacy advertising. However, the ASA did not uphold a complaint against a fourth billboard published in February 2022 highlighting a Dunedin man who had died from an adverse vaccine reaction in late 2021.
On 27 May 2022, the ASA ordered the removal of another VFF advertisement questioning the Government's vaccination effort on the grounds that it breached advertising guidelines on social responsibility and truthful representation. This marked the third time that the advertising watchdog had ruled against the organisation's advertisements.