By Alasdair Pal
Oct 9 (Reuters) – New Zealand’s national censor said on Friday it would be unable to block the planned livestreamed execution of a former Army major in the United States, as rights groups pressed governments to protest the decision with Washington.
Nidal Hasan, a former Army psychiatrist, was convicted of killing 13 people and wounding 32 others at the Fort Hood military base in Texas in 2009.
The Pentagon said on Thursday Hasan’s December 3 execution by firing squad would be livestreamed, in what would be an unprecedented broadcast of a US execution.
The decision is likely to draw scrutiny from governments around the world amid mounting efforts to protect young people in particular from harmful internet content.
One of the first countries to react was New Zealand, where censorship authorities highlighted difficulties in restricting access to such material.
“The Classification Office cannot classify a livestream event as it is taking place, and we, nor any other body, has the authority to block access to a livestream event,” a spokesperson for New Zealand’s Classification Office said in a statement.
“The threshold for banning content under New Zealand law is high and requires that we balance freedom of expression with the likelihood of harm,” New Zealand Chief Censor Caroline Flora said.
“Distressing as content may be, it is not always unlawful.”
The news has additional resonance in New Zealand, where a gunman killed 51 people at two mosques in 2019, livestreaming his crimes on Facebook.
The country has since been at the forefront of combating violent content online, with then-Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern launching a global campaign on the issue months after the attack.
US Defense SecretaryPete Hegseth said the execution by firing squad was a “no-brainer”, adding that people need to understand there are “serious consequences for these types of things.”
Under US military law, a US president must approve an execution. President Donald Trump did so on Hegseth’s recommendation, the Pentagon said on Monday.
The White House declined to say whether Trump supported the livestreaming, referring questions to the Pentagon.
Public executions have become exceedingly rare worldwide. Among countries known to conduct them in recent years are Iran and Taliban-run Afghanistan.
The decision was criticised by rights groups, with Amnesty International Australia urging Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to press the US to reverse its decision.
“The suggestion that an execution by firing squad should be livestreamed for public viewing is an appalling disregard for human dignity,” said Kyinzom Dhongdue, a campaign manager at the rights group.
“Turning a state-sanctioned killing into a public spectacle only compounds the cruelty of the death penalty.”
Spokespeople for the foreign ministries of Australia and New Zealand did not respond to requests for comment.
(Reporting by Alasdair Pal and Renju Jose in Sydney; editing by Lincoln Feast.)
