SYDNEY – Australia will do everything it can to prevent the “completely abhorrent” livestream of a US military prisoner's execution from being accessible in the country, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Tuesday.
Nidal Malik Hasan is scheduled to be executed by firing squad on Dec 3 at Fort Hood, Texas, where he killed 13 people in a 2009 shooting.
The execution would be the first by a US military firing squad since 1945.
A Pentagon official told AFP last week that the execution would be livestreamed, after US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said the authorities would ensure the public could watch it.
Albanese told national broadcaster ABC that he had a “social responsibility” to prevent the execution 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 acknowledged that stopping the livestream was “not as simple as turning off a light switch”.
However, 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.”
Australia’s Environment Minister Murray Watt also described the plans as “absolutely disgusting”.
The proposal to livestream Hasan’s execution has drawn widespread criticism in the United States and internationally.
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said livestreaming an execution would be tantamount to a public execution and would breach the absolute prohibition of torture.
In Australia, the issue has prompted rare cross-party agreement among political opponents.
Far-right lawmaker Barnaby Joyce described the proposal as “Roman amphitheatre stuff”, while Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young called on regulators to stop the execution from being shown in Australia. –AFP