Covid-19 deniers and anti-lockdown protesters gathered at the TVNZ building in Auckland to protest the alert level 4 lockdown. Video / Cameron Pitney
Covid-19 conspiracy theorist and former political hopeful Billy Te Kahika, who was sentenced last month to prison, has won the right to discuss his case online while appealing the decision.
He and co-defendant Vincent Eastwood were granted bail last month immediately after Auckland District Court Judge Peter Winter ordered four months’ imprisonment for Te Kahika and three months’ imprisonment for Eastwood.
Both men were found guilty of organising and attending a protest in front of TVNZ’s central Auckland headquarters on the first day of the nationwide Covid-19 lockdown in August 2021 spurred by the arrival of the virus’ Delta variant.
The two were immediately granted bail while the sentence is appealed, but among the bail conditions set by Judge Winter last month was that neither man access or use the internet for the purposes of discussing their sentencing or the upcoming appeal on social media.
Neither man - nor their many supporters who accompanied them throughout the district court process - were in attendance today as their lawyers appealed that bail condition before Justice Timothy Brewer in the High Court at Auckland.
The hearing was short, with Justice Brewer noting in his decision that the Crown accepted there was no basis for such restrictions. The condition should be quashed as it is contrary to the rights of freedom of expression outlined in the Bill of Rights, he said.
A hearing date for the conviction and sentence appeal has not yet been set.
“Our freedom of speech has been ‘given’ back to us,” Te Kahika, also known as Billy TK, wrote on social media a short time after today’s hearing. “Now to overturn the charges and severe prison sentence with your support - thank you whanau very much.”
Violating the Covid-19 Public Health Response Act by attending an illegal gathering carries a maximum punishment of six months’ jail and a $4000 fine, while organising such a gathering is punishable only by a fine. Te Kahika’s involvement was described by Judge Winter during his sentencing as “at the upper end if not the most serious end ... of this type of offending”.
Te Kahika and Eastwood spent three days in court in August for a judge-alone trial during which they both testified. Judge Winter found them guilty in December, following a lengthy adjournment so both sides could submit written legal arguments that focused in part on whether the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act allowing freedom of assembly to protest should have superseded the lockdown order.
Police arrested anti-lockdown protester Vincent Eastwood outside TVNZ in August 2021. Photo / Dean Purcell
A senior police officer testified during the trial that Te Kahika called him on the first morning of the lockdown to let law enforcement know he was planning a protest of 200 to 300 people outside TVNZ headquarters in central Auckland that day.
“He was advised it was against the health order and he was liable to be arrested,” the officer testified. “He told me it was his right to protest.”
Te Kahika then posted a series of live videos on Facebook in which he encouraged people to show up to the protest. In one social media post, the judge noted, Te Kahika “advanced various theories now commonly accepted to be conspiracy theories as his reason for being present in contravention of the level 4 lockdown regulations”.
Despite warnings from police, Te Kahika testified he was surprised by his arrest because he believed freedom of speech and assembly should have taken precedence over lockdown orders.
Eastwood, an online broadcaster who had been travelling with Te Kahika when the lockdown was announced, also posted on social media encouraging people to turn out for the protest.
Video footage played repeatedly during the evidence phase of the trial showed him yelling through a megaphone with an increasingly desperate-sounding tone for fellow protesters to surround him and “protect” him as police approached in an effort to hand him a letter advising him the gathering was illegal.
But he also took steps to calm the crowd after Te Kahika’s arrest, the judge noted at sentencing.
Eastwood testified that he was terrified of police, describing his arrest that day and the panic attacks that followed as “the most traumatic experience I have ever suffered in my entire life”. The duo spent 28 hours in jail before they were released on bail the next day to await trial.
