Sky News boss slams Christchurch shooting video ‘mistruths’

CEO dismisses reports suggesting NZ broadcaster withdrew Sky News Australia’s coverage of mosque attacks over ‘distressing video.’

The gunman live-streamed the attack on social media.

Sky News chief executive Paul Whittaker has slammed media reports suggesting Sky New Zealand withdrew Sky News Australia’s coverage of the Christchurch shootings because of “distressing video”.

On Saturday a number of news outlets reported Sky New Zealand, which runs a live simulcast from Australia on its platform, had pulled the live news feed from Australia due to distressing footage of the shootings, which killed 50 people across two mosques in Christchurch on Friday afternoon.

“This is not correct,” Mr Whittaker said in a statement .

The reports came after a tweet was posted by Sky New Zealand on Saturday which said the platform had made the decision to remove Sky News Australia coverage until it was “confident” the footage from the events would not be shared. The tweet has since been removed.

On Friday, New Zealand’s Department of Internal Affairs said those who shared the video were “likely” to be committing an offence.

Sky News Australia CEO Paul Whittaker. Picture: Hollie Adams

Mr Whittaker said Sky News Australia had contacted the New Zealand television platform on Friday, to inform them of the risks of broadcasting Australian coverage as it could potentially compromise the NZ investigation and legal process.

“With Sky NZ’s agreement, we took the pre-emptive and precautionary step to switch our live news feed to sports coverage early Friday evening to ensure any live coverage or commentary taking place in Australia, outside of the NZ jurisdiction, does not impact the unfolding events in NZ,” Mr Whittaker said.

He said the footage shown on the Australian platform was in line with other broadcasters - “heavily-edited” and “carefully selected”, with “no vision from inside the mosque, no shootings and no victims”.

“At no stage did we feature the live vision,” he said.

Mr Whittaker said the platform had ceased running vision on Sky News Live from early Saturday morning.

“Sky News Australia acted responsibly and prudently to replace the live news service in NZ as soon as we were able to,” he said.

“At this time of great sadness, I am disappointed that we are compelled to correct mistruths surrounding our coverage of the events.”