Sky News Australia Removed From New Zealand’s Airwaves After They Aired Live Stream Of Terrorist Attack
Sky News Australia has been pulled from New Zealand’s airwaves after they aired some of the footage captured during a terrorist attack at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, on Friday. Forty-nine Muslims were killed by a shooter who live streamed the attack.
The news of the removal was shared by Sky News New Zealand’s Twitter account and follows a request from New Zealand police asking social media users to refrain for sharing the video. They also indicated they were trying to have the video “removed.”
“We stand in support of our fellow New Zealanders and have made the decision to remove Sky News Australia from our platforms until we are confident that the distressing footage from yesterday’s events will not be shared,” Sky New Zealand tweeted.
As The Telegraph reports, the footage shows the gunman unloading his firearm into victims at close range, as he targeted people who were trying to escape. According to The Sydney Morning Herald, the video is about 16 minutes long and also includes a recording of the shooter driving to the mosque to carry out his crimes.
He reportedly said “Let’s get this party started” before he drove to the first mosque he attacked.
Brenton Tarrant, a 28-year-old Australian man, was arrested and charged for the attack. As The Inquisitr reported, he had previously uploaded a manifesto online in which he described himself as an “ordinary white man” who had become radicalized after a 2017 terrorist attack in Sweden. An 11-year-old girl named Ebba Akerlund was killed and Tarrant claims that her death was the event that changed him. An Uzbek man has been jailed for life for the attack.
“Young, innocent and dead Ebba,” he wrote. “Ebba was walking to meet her mother after school, when she was murdered by an Islamic attacker, driving a stolen vehicle through the shopping promenade on which she was walking.”
Brenton Tarrant, the terrorist behind the New Zealand mosque attack, is seen at a Turkish airport in this image accessed by TRT World https://t.co/g9hq2OtpZQ pic.twitter.com/sHq4jGLRNg
— TRT World (@trtworld) March 15, 2019
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has called the attack, “one of New Zealand’s darkest days.” She has also vowed to toughen New Zealand gun laws because of it. Its current gun regulations allow private citizens to own semi-automatic weapons, The Inquisitr also reported.
Christchurch’s mayor has also expressed her shock that a terrorist attack of this scale happened in her city.
“I would never have expected anything like this to happen in Christchurch. I’d never expect this to happen in New Zealand,” she said, as reported by The Sydney Morning Herald. “I am getting messages from around the country, and from around the world. I know that everyone is shocked.”
