New Zealand shuts down Australian TV channel over mosque massacre coverage

AUCKLAND – New Zealand has pulled off the air an Australian news channel for showing graphic video footage shot by the man who killed 49 people at two mosques in Christchurch, police said on Sunday.

Rupert Murdoch’s 24-hour Sky News Australia has been pulled off the air by independently-owned Sky New Zealand. The decision was made after Murdoch’s channel refused to stop showing graphic video footage, the New Zealand police said in a statement.

This was despite calls from the police urging anyone broadcasting the disturbing footage to stop circulating it. “Police are aware there is extremely distressing footage relating to the incident in Christchurch circulating online. “We would strongly urge that the link not be shared. We are working to have any footage removed.”

On Saturday, the New Zealand broadcaster announced the decision to pull the channel off the air. “We stand in support of our fellow New Zealanders and have made the decision to remove Sky News Australia from our platform until we are confident that the distressing footage from yesterday’s events will not be shared,” it said in a now-deleted Tweet.

Soon after in a new Tweet, the broadcaster changed its message saying, “We stand in support of our fellow New Zealanders and are working with our colleagues at @SkyNewsAust to ensure coverage doesn’t compromise ongoing investigations in NZ. We made the decision on Friday with Sky News Australia to replace their live news with the sport.”

courtesy: thinkprogress.org