Wellington - New Zealand's Chief Censor
said on Thursday he had banned a video game that appeared to
glorify the mass shooting in Christchurch earlier this year that
killed 51 Muslim worshippers.
In an attack broadcast live on Facebook, a lone gunman armed
with semi-automatic weapons targeted Muslims attending prayers
in two Christchurch mosques on March 15, killing 51 people and
wounding dozens.
Australian Brenton Tarrant, a suspected white supremacist,
has been charged with the attack and faces trial next year.
Chief Censor David Shanks said a video game that celebrated
the livestream of the mass shooting has been classified as
objectionable.
"The creators of this game set out to produce and sell a
game designed to place the player in the role of a white
supremacist terrorist killer," Shanks said in a statement.
"In this game, anyone who isn’t a white heterosexual male is
a target for simply existing."
Shanks previously outlawed the livestreamed video of
Christchurch attack, and a manifesto linked to the alleged
shooter.
Earlier this month, the censor board also outlawed a 35
minute long video of another attack by an anti-Semitic gunman
who killed two people in Halle, Germany.
A document said to have been shared by the gunman in Germany
has now also been banned, Shanks said.
Some game producers appear intent on producing a "family" of
white extremist games, and have established a revenue stream
from it, with customers in New Zealand and around the world able
to purchase the games from the producer’s website, Shanks said.
"The games producers will try to dress their work up as
satire but this game is no joke. It crosses the line."