The settlement came almost four years after the publication of Dirty Politics, which alleged the office of former Prime Minister Sir John Key ran a dirty tricks campaign through right-wing bloggers.
Hager wrote the book after an anonymous source known only as Rawshark provided information said to have been hacked from Whaleoil blogger Cameron Slater. Police launched an investigation into the identity of Rawshark after Slater complained about being a victim of hacking.
That complaint led detectives to search Hager’s home on October 2, 2014, taking computers, paperwork and other material. In the settlement that followed, police apologised for a range of breaches of Hager’s rights, including wrongly using an exception in the Privacy Act to access 10 months of Hager’s banking data from Westpac.
“This sends a vital message that people can share important information with journalists with confidence that their identities will be protected,” Hager said.
Hager’s publications also include 2006’s The Hollow Men and 2011’s Other People’s Wars.