Author: Charlotte Graham-McLay / Source: New York Times
Cornell Tukiri for The New York Times
CHRISTCHURCH, New Zealand — A lone white supremacist is the suspect in the Christchurch mosque killings. But under New Zealand law, many others could face charges for spreading or perhaps even possessing all or part of the 17-minute Facebook Live video streamed by the killer as he methodically shot the victims.
As of Thursday, at least two people had been charged with sharing that video via social media, under a law that forbids dissemination or possession of material depicting extreme violence and terrorism. Others could face related charges in connection with publicizing the terrorist attack, under a human-rights law that forbids incitement of racial disharmony.
While freedom of expression is a legal right in New Zealand, the parameters are more restrictive than the First Amendment guarantees in the United States. New Zealand’s Department of Internal Affairs includes a chief censor, an official who has the authority to determine what material is forbidden.
The restrictions mean New Zealanders could face legal consequences for intentionally looking at the Christchurch killer’s video, which may have been seen millions of times around the world.
Facebook and other social media platforms also could face new legal issues because of the video, and not only in New Zealand. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern of New Zealand has vowed to investigate the role that social media played in the attack and to take action, possibly alongside other countries, against the sites that broadcast it.
“We cannot simply sit back and accept that these platforms just exist and that what is said on them is not the responsibility of the place where they are published,” she told Parliament on Tuesday. “They are the publisher, not just the postman.”
Ms. Ardern has not specified what measures she would propose. But social media applications clearly empowered the online activity of others who spread the killer’s message.
One man, Philip Neville Arps, appeared in court in Christchurch on Wednesday on two charges related to reposting the killer’s video. Mr. Arps was denied bail and is facing almost a month in custody until his next court appearance.
A Christchurch teenager, whose name has not been released, was denied bail on Monday over charges that he had posted a photograph of Al Noor Mosque, one of the two that were attacked, a week before the shootings, with the caption “target acquired.” He was also charged with reposting the video.
Each could spend as much as 14 years in jail if found guilty.
And a woman in Masterton, on the North Island of New Zealand, was arrested over comments she made on her Facebook page after the attacks. The police told The New Zealand Herald that they had yet to decide whether to charge her under the Human Rights Act, a rarely used provision that prohibits writings that incite racial disharmony. If charged and convicted, she would face a fine of 7,000 New Zealand dollars, or about $4,800.
Criminal charges were not the only possible consequence of having publicized the attack. An Auckland medical clinic said on Thursday that it had suspended a senior doctor, pending an investigation, after being alerted to anti-Islamic comments he made on a blog several years ago.
Andrew Scott-Howman, a New Zealand employment lawyer, said he…
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