Conspiracy theorist and former TV presenter Liz Gunn arrested at Auckland Airport

Conspiracy theorist and former TV presenter Liz Gunn has been reportedly arrested after a scuffle involving a security guard at Auckland Airport.

Gunn and a cameraman had apparently been trying to film the arrival into New Zealand of members of a family who had been kept in lockdown in Tokelau after refusing the Covid vaccine.

According to social media posts by Gunn supporters, a security guard asked the pair to stop filming before things “escalated so quickly that, before the pair knew it, they were being arrested by police”. She was apparently detained by police in handcuffs.

Police have confirmed to media that two people - a 63-year-old woman and a 49-year-old man - have been arrested.

According to a social media post from the far-right Counterspin Media website, which broadcasts conspiracy theories and discredited Covid-19 misinformation, the cameraman has been charged with willful trespass and resisting arrest. “He has received a summons to appear at Manukau court on Thursday, March 23, at 9am. At this stage, the same is likely for Liz but her paperwork was [missing] so this is yet to be confirmed.”

Former TV newsreader Liz Gunn is using her social channels to spread her views. Photo / Facebook

After starting her career as a litigation lawyer, Gunn presented Sunday for TVNZ in the early 1990s. She was part of the original TVNZ Breakfast team alongside Mike Hosking and Susan Wood in 1997. In 2001, Gunn took Alison Mau’s place as host, forming a team alongside Hosking, but sparked headlines when she suddenly quit live on air.

During her stint at TVNZ between 1990 and 2003, Gunn also worked at Radio New Zealand, hosting a number of shows before finishing in 2016.

Her more recent media activities have played out on social media in the shape of conspiratorial videos. She was also a prominent supporter of the parents in the case of Baby W - in which the baby’s parents did not want their ill baby to receive a blood transfusion from anyone who had received the Covid vaccine. In 2021, Gunn suggested that an earthquake that hit the central North Island was Mother Nature’s response to then Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s announcement about new vaccination targets, passports, and the traffic light system.

In a media column, Herald journalist Damien Venuto wrote: “The problem with Gunn’s dalliance with conspiracy theories is that her voice still carries some credibility after three decades on New Zealand television and radio. Her recent clips are well-produced, often employing the skills she developed during her time in mainstream media. If you were to encounter one of these clips during a daily scroll through Facebook, it would be easy to mistake it for a video from a legitimate media company.”