Australian police arrested seven teenagers accused of following a violent extremist ideology in raids across Sydney on Wednesday, as a judge extended a ban on social media platform X sharing video of a knife attack on a bishop that started the criminal investigation.
The seven, aged 15 to 17, were part of a network that included a 16-year-old boy accused of stabbing a bishop in a Sydney church on April 15, police said.
Clips of the stabbing were taken from the church service’s livestream and subsequently made the rounds on X. An Australian regulator last week ordered the platform to take down the videos, an action the platform is fighting.
Five other teenagers were still being questioned late Wednesday by the Joint Counter-Terrorism Team, which includes federal and state police as well as the Australian Security Intelligence Organization, the nation’s main domestic spy agency, and the New South Wales Crime Commission, which specializes in extremists and organized crime.
“accused of”? What does this mean? Just legalese of innocent until tried and found guilty? Is this just safespeak from the newspaper to avoid getting sued?
Yes. If you say someone did a crime before they were convicted, you could face libel charges.
Because here in Australia we follow this concept called innocent until proven guilty.
So it’ll take a court to say for certain they are guilty or not, until such a verdict is reached they are only accused of.
You know journalism is supposed to be about accurate, factual reporting, right?