Hannah Spierer and Kelvyn Alp as they are normally seen on their Counterspin channel, part of the Infowars network. Spierer was forced by NZ cops to give a DNA sample by being bent frontwards over a table.

By TONY MOBILIFONITIS

DETAILS have emerged of the brutal arrest of the hosts of Counterspin, New Zealand’s leading alternative media site, by Christchurch cops on August 25th. The pair face 28 years in jail under draconian censorship legislation for sharing a link to “an objectionable publication” about the Christchurch mosque shooting.

The “offending information” was at a link made available on February 22nd, and declared “objectionable” two days later. It was to a small cut from an online commentary about the shooting by the Australian video maker Max Igan, who fled Australia during the pandemic and is now a resident of Mexico.

A squad of 20 cops, some heavily armed, raided the home of Hannah Spierer and her partner Kelvyn Alp, who regularly feature as co-hosts on the media channel. All electronics including production equipment, mobile phones, drives and computers were seized.

“It seems the state via its Chief Censor, believes it’s the sole arbiter of what information people have access to. Kelvyn and Hannah reject these allegations,” Counterspin reported.

“Counterspin Media have at least four open investigations into Government, Police and State Service corruption, including, but not limited to crimes against humanity. We believe this current action is an attempt to shut down our ability to bring information of vital public interest/importance to the people.”

Prominent NZ broadcast journalist Liz Gunn was told by Spierer she was grabbed by three cops, thrown to the ground and handcuffed, but not Alp (CN: provocation attempt?). Spierer said she was dragged into the medical room at the police station because she refused to give a saliva sample for DNA.

She said five officers then bent her forward over a table to give a sample before taking a blood pin prick. “What does that tell you?” said Gunn. “Imagine being a woman and having five burly men bend you over a table. You know what I’m saying. It’s a ritualized version of rape.”

Gunn said the arrests and charges did not add up. Why, for instance did they wait six months to make the arrest and to whom was the material objectionable? She suggested the arrests were designed to coincide with Stuff Media’s hit piece documentary Fire and Fury, demonizing various so-called conspiracy theorists active in the country.

“Is there something they want to hide about that (the massacre)? Why would they go after two people who put a small cut from an overseas person who’s investigating it? Why would they come down with such severity? They charged them and would potentially put them behind bars for 28 years for playing a small cut of something that someone else is doing?” Gunn asked.

“Jacinda Ardern, is there something more that we the people of New Zealand need to ask you about what actually went on in Christchurch?”

Counterspin also reported on the mainstream media response: “New Zealand’s NewsHub TV news dragged out of the basement or from under the foot bridge outside your child’s school New Zealand’s top disinformation troll Byron C Clark to comment on the recent arrest of Counterspin media hosts Hannah Spierer and Kelvyn Alp.

“Without thinking he managed to confirm that Counterspin Media and Alex Jones are winning the infowar and the numbers of people getting caught up in ‘conspiracy theories’ is growing. But rest assured, Byron has some comforting tips to help those who are not buying the mainstream and government BS narrative.”

Alp and Spierer were charged under the Films, Videos and Publications Act 1993, which was amended by the Ardern government in 2021 as the Films, Videos, and Publications Classification (Urgent Interim Classification of Publications and Prevention of Online Harm) Amendment Bill, which included draconian jail terms for online content deemed harmful.

The pair were remanded on bail to enter pleas on September 21. Supporters, labeled as “anti-Government demonstrators” by media, gathered outside the court and clashed with a group of rent-a-mob Antifa types who back Ardern. 

After being forcibly moved into the dock by court security guards and police officers Alp and Spierer read from a prepared script: “I do not argue the law, facts, jurisdiction or venue,” Spierer said. “I am only here to settle this matter.”

When asked by media why he didn’t go to the dock, Alp said “we’re the captain of our vessels, not them”. Stuff.co then accused them of “going on to spread false information about the Christchurch mosque attack”.

Stuff Ltd (previously Fairfax New Zealand) is a privately held news media company in a duopoly with NZ Media and Entertainment. Stuff Ltd owns the country’s largest news website, nine daily newspapers, including The Dominion Post (Wellington) The Press (Christchurch) and the Sunday Star-Times.

The organisation has been running a vicious campaign against the growing freedom movement and political candidates it labels as conspiracy theorists i.e. someone who questions mainstream media and government narratives.