One Down, Two to Go: $400 Fine Ends Three-Year, $100k+ Witch-Hunt Over “Christchurch Footage”

15 March 2019: 51 lives lost, a nation traumatised, and Jacinda Ardern became the global poster-child for compassion. Instant gun bans, sweeping censorship powers, and an official narrative sealed shut.

COVID followed: the same voice that said “They are us, we are them” now declared itself the “one source of truth”. Lockdowns, mandates, riot police on Parliament lawn - dissent was crushed.

She resigned at the peak, was made a Dame, and feted by royalty. The fairy-tale seemed unbreakable.

Until today.

Three people were raided and charged for daring to question what really happened in Christchurch. After three years of lawfare, seized equipment, and legal bills soaring past six figures, the first of those cases has just collapsed in court - reduced to a $400 fine.

One down. Two to go - each still facing up to 14 years in prison.

Next courtroom showdown: 26 February 2026.

The state’s weapon - the “objectionable publications” law used to silence anyone challenging the Christchurch story - has misfired spectacularly.

The institutions Ardern built her legend on are imploding in 2025: police corruption scandals, sealed files, unanswered Royal Commission questions, and now a courtroom humiliation the legacy media refuses to report.

This is only the beginning.

Counterspin Media is still in the fight - and the official narrative is cracking.

Watch the victory that marks the turning point. The reckoning has started.