Its a very interesting piece and the type of journalism we very rarely see in NZ its made even better by the fact that Stephenson actually went to Afghanistan to write it. Though, I think we need to be careful saying the Govt tracked Stephenson.
He was in a warzone where all communications are regularly tracked to help develop information to target "the bad guys" it is likely Stephenson's name came up and as he is a NZer this would have been passed onto the NZ contingent. The question is what was done with this info?
It is a very big no-no if he was actively tracked and someone should be made accountable if this was the case, but on the other hand we need to be careful we don't look at it in isolation. If Hager wants to really but the nail in the coffin he needs to show that Stephenson was actively and intentionally tracked by the NZDF either with their own assets or via someone else.