On 15 March 2015, the journalists Nicky Hager and Ryan Gallagher reported in the "New Zealand Herald" that the GCSB was using the NSA's internet mass surveillance system XKeyscore to intercept email communications from several leading Solomon Islands government ministers, the Solomons Islands Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and the Solomons anti-corruption campaigner Benjamin Afuga. In response the New Zealand Minister of Foreign Affairs Murray McCully downplayed reports of the spying disclosures by asserting that Pacific Islands ministers "were smart enough not to believe what they read in New Zealand newspapers." He also offered to discuss their concerns about the mass surveillance program in private. The Solomons Chief of Staff, Robert Iroga, has condemned the New Zealand Government's actions for damaging New Zealand's image as a "friendly government" in the South Pacific. He added that communications within the inner circle of the Solomons Government was "highly secret information" that rightfully belong to the Solomon Islanders.