Australia will do ‘anything we can’ to stop US execution from being shown online: PM
Sign up now: Get insights on Asia's fast-moving developments
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told national broadcaster ABC he had a “social responsibility” to stop it from being shown.
PHOTO: REUTERS
- Australia says it will try to stop the planned livestream of US prisoner Nidal Hasan’s execution from being shown in the country, calling it “completely abhorrent”.
- Hasan, who killed 13 people at Fort Hood in 2009, is due to be executed by firing squad on Dec 3. It would be the first US military firing squad execution since 1945.
- Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Australia has a “social responsibility” to act, while the UN said livestreaming an execution would be like a public execution and breach torture bans.
AI generated
SYDNEY – Australia will do whatever it can to stop the “completely abhorrent” live streaming of the execution of a US prisoner from being available to view in the country, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Oct 13.
Nidal Hasan’s execution – scheduled for Dec 3 at Fort Hood, Texas, where he gunned down 13 people in 2009 – is set to be the first by a US military firing squad since 1945.
A Pentagon official told AFP last week the execution would be streamed live, after US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said “we’ll make sure that people are able to watch it, that it’s public”.
Albanese told national broadcaster ABC he had a “social responsibility” to stop it from being shown.
“I do not know why anybody would want themselves to watch such an event, let alone sit back and allow potentially kids and families to get access to this,” Albanese said.
Australia’s internet regulator has said it does not have the power to prevent the execution from being shown online.
Albanese said it was “not as simple as turning off a light switch”.
But he said his government would make clear to social media companies that “this has no place in our country”.
“If there is anything we can do, we will do, I assure you of that.”
Albanese’s Environment Minister Murray Watt also said he found the plans “absolutely disgusting”.
Plans for Hasan’s execution to be shown online have drawn broad revulsion both in the US and internationally.
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said “the live streaming of an execution is tantamount to a public execution and would breach the absolute prohibition of torture”.
In Australia, the issue has prompted rare consensus across the political spectrum in opposition.
Far-right lawmaker Barnaby Joyce described it as “Roman amphitheatre stuff”, while Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young called for regulators to stop the execution from being shown in Australia. AFP