Friendlyjordies has come out swinging against the NSW Police in a newly published video titled ‘Terror Police Attempt to Ban My Videos’. 

The YouTuber is involved in an ongoing defamation court case, Barilaro v Shanks-Markovina, brought against him by former NSW Deputy Premier John Barilaro. That trial is scheduled to begin in March, 2022.

In the meantime, it seems like Friendlyjordies has even more pressing matters to contend with. In his latest video posted today, October 12th, he reveals that the NSW Police are now attempting to suppress his videos.

Comparing the current situation in NSW to Pinochet’s Chile, Kim Jong Un’s North Korea, and Sahara’s Indonesia, he says, “the same cops that completely bungled the wrongful arrest of my employee Kristo (Langker) are now having the legal equivalent of a tantrum.”

FriendlyJordies then insists that the NSW Police have been desperate to suppress his coverage of the matter by first playing “some very questionable ethical legal shenanigans, hinting that they were going to serve me with something for weeks but never serving”, before at Kristo’s hearing they sprung up with “a childishly written application for the court to find me in contempt whilst I wasn’t there.”

He says that the cops were arguing that “they had to urgently removal my videos about a local court matter essentially because the video made jokes about cops.”

After the magistrate pointed out that it wasn’t in fact contempt of court, Friendlyjordies says that the NSW Police got to work crafting a document, a “suppression order for a local court matter.”

He continued: “After failing to put me in jail for making videos the true detectives of the fixated persons unit are attempting to remove videos of Kristo’s arrest because they’re completely and utterly embarrassed by their own behaviour. Not only that but they’re trying to put a gag order on me to make it illegal for me to cover the trial.”

Friendlyjordies insists that every lawyer he’s spoken to regarding the matter thinks this order is “unprecedented in both its stupidity and authoritarian nature.”

He then takes viewers through the orders sought by the suppression order. It begins with “The applicant is seeking removal from social media and all digital platforms under the control of the respondent and his associated YouTube channel Friendlyjordies, all material associated with the proceedings of Krista Langker which are listed for hearing in May 2022 at the Downing Centre Local Court.”

Friendlyjordies gleefully points out several spelling mistakes throughout the document, including ‘chanel’ instead of ‘channel’, and misspelling the name ‘Kristo Langker’.

Also listed is “The applicant seeks that a non-application order in relation to any material from the brief of evidence or commenting about the nature of the evidence the strength or weakness of the case and the making of comments, adverse or otherwise in relation to any prosecution witness in the proceedings against Mr Langker.”

Friendlyjordies contends with this one by arguing that if the case is strong enough for the cops to spend such a large amount of time and effort on, they wouldn’t also attempt to ban comments on the strength or weakness of the case.

The third order sought is for “The Court to order the respondent not to directly or indirectly publish/disseminate/produce/air any material in relation to Court proceedings against Mr Langker until that Court matter is finalised,”

It’s then that Friendlyjordies notes “the application gets incredibly sinister.” Another order states that “The applicant is only seeking removal of material that is directly under the control of the respondent on all social media platforms.” As he’s quick to point out, that essentially means everyone else can talk about Kristo’s arrest except from Friendlyjordies.

Towards the end of the video, the YouTuber becomes very frustrated. “If anyone in the audience has any more stories, feel free to email me because the cops can’t suppress public interest journalism,” he asks. “Use your constitutional right to demand that the NSW Police #FireMcQueen (in reference to Sergeant Detective Matthew McQueen), a hashtag which has now been taken up on Twitter by supporters of Friendlyjordies.

He ends his video by saying the hearing is set for tomorrow, October 13th, at 9am. “Lets see if sanity prevails or the cops succeed in making it illegal for me to open my mouth,” he says.

https://twitter.com/wooba_wam/status/1447823347434221569?s=21

https://twitter.com/misssashadevine/status/1447826058212872203?s=21

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