Activists lose challenge to NSW laws banning secret filming of animal cruelty

High court rules laws criminalising secretly recorded footage and audio do not impose too great a burden on speech

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Animal rights activists have lost a landmark high court case against New South Wales laws criminalising the use of secretly recorded vision from farms and abattoirs, which they said prevented their attempts to blow the whistle on animal cruelty and abuse.

The state, through its Surveillance Devices Act, makes it a criminal offence to use or possess footage or audio that was obtained using a listening device or hidden camera, and gives no public interest exemptions for doing so.

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