Victoria Police ban media livestreaming aerial footage from Melbourne’s protests

Police have done a backflip on the decision to have media banned from entering the CBD to air Melbourne’s protests, but tough restrictions will still apply.

Victoria Police put an immediate stop to media organisations filming and broadcasting live aerial footage from the Melbourne protests but within hours of the shock request being approved they wound back the unprecedented restraint on TV networks.

The Civil Aviation Safety Authority on Wednesday confirmed a Victoria Police request to stop all aircraft – except police helicopters – flying over Melbourne’s CBD on the third day of the protests.

But within about four hours of the request by Victoria Police being approved, the unprecedented restrictions were wound back, instead allowing media to fly over the CBD with police approval first.

Media will remain banned from live streaming vision and instead will have to delay their aerial footage being broadcast for 60 minutes or until the police operation has concluded.

These restrictions remain in place until at least 9am Sunday.

In an issued statement police said: “This is because protesters were actively monitoring aerial livestreams, compromising the police operation and putting the safety of members at risk.”

The airspace will be closed if the networks broadcast any vision live.

After the initial announcement was made on Wednesday afternoon, networks voiced their anger at the decision which they said would “hinder” their ability to cover an important news event.

Nine’s director of news and current affairs Darren Wick was among those to slam the move, describing it as “an overreach”.

He said the media were not consulted about the decision before it was implemented.

“We have to be able to show the public what is happening, it’s not what we do, we are not a police state,” Mr Wick said on Melbourne’s 3AW radio station.

“It’s very unprecedented and it’s very uncomfortable, the decision that’s been made.

“To can the media helicopter coverage of this for the next several days is overreach and it’s actually a very dangerous precedent.”

Mr Wick referenced the Sydney’s Lindt cafe siege in 2014 where he said NSW police consulted media during the dangerous event unfolding.

“I look in Sydney, the Lindt cafe siege several years ago, the police actually spoke with the media and asked us to stop broadcasting live pictures for half an hour while they were able to move police into strategic positions, which we complied with,” he said.

“This is not that, this is a bunch of boofheads wandering around protesting on the streets … to ban the media helicopters coverage of this for the next several days is overreach.

“We are moving into the realms of censorship and a police state.”

Premier Daniel Andrews’ office said they had no involvement in the decision to stop aerial footage of the protest scenes being aired live across the television networks.

Sources said a shared media helicopter – an arrangement between Seven, Nine, Sky News and the ABC – was grounded at around 2pm on Wednesday.

Seven’s director of news Craig McPherson also criticised the decision and said it was “clipping the wings of the press”.

“I’ve never seen anything that falls into this category, on the basis of what … it falls down on so many levels, the main one being common sense,” he said.

“I don’t think it can be explained how news choppers showing aerials of the actual happenings down at street level could in any way give any degree of intel to the protesters and whatever plans the police they might be concocting.”

He said in his 40 years in the media industry he had not seen anything like this.

“We were just grounded without any real justification,” Mr McPherson said.

“It’s hindering the reporting of a major news event in the centre of the second biggest city in Australia that’s unfolding, people need to witness the birds-eye view of what’s occurring in their city.”

The broadcasters were notified of the initial decision mid-air, after their pool helicopter had just refuelled and was returning to the CBD to capture more vision of Wednesday’s protests.

A spokeswoman for Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews said: “These are operational decisions made by VicPol and the government is not involved.”

Vision of the protests has been streaming around the world.

Among some of the most chaotic scenes from the media choppers that have aired included thousands of protesters causing chaos on Melbourne’s major arterial road, the Westgate Freeway, on Tuesday, grinding traffic to a halt and chaos traffic mayhem for hours.

Victoria Police said in a statement issued at 6pm on Wednesday after the media backlash: “While this decision was made for operational and safety reasons in relation to the protest activity, we acknowledge the concerns raised by the media.

“As a result, Victoria Police will include a provision for media outlets to operate their aircrafts over the CBD.”