TV Station Refuses to Pay for Photographer Who Risked His Life in Bondi Beach Capturing

A photographer who risked his life through the lethal Bondi Beach capturing in Australia has discovered {that a} main nationwide information service is refusing to pay for his pictures, claiming truthful use.

Banjo McLachlan occurred to be at Bondi Beach in Sydney on December 14, 2025, for one more job when he noticed two gunmen pull up in a automotive, soar out, and open fireplace at folks celebrating the Jewish competition of Hanukkah.

“I back-pedaled and ducked down behind a bus stop and got my camera out and managed to get some pictures,” a shaken McLachlan told Daily Mail Australia a number of months in the past. “It was just chaos. People were screaming.”

Despite witnessing folks being shot, McLachlan bravely went into work mode and bought images of the shooters — even having the presence of thoughts to seize video as nicely. 15 folks died, together with a 10-year-old woman.

McLachlan works with Matrix Picture Agency, which distributes his images. Within minutes, the images have been on main information web sites world wide, and the following day have been splashed on newspaper entrance pages. McLachlan provides that he handed the photo-editing duties to the company and has barely regarded on the pictures for the reason that atrocity.

‘Fair Use’

McLachlan’s images not solely helped the police clearly determine the suspects, however additionally they knowledgeable the general public concerning the tragic occasions that unfolded that day. His images have been used far and broad. Matrix and the Daily Mail collectively billed the assorted information retailers that used McLachlan’s images, which the photographer will get a reduce of. But according to The Australian, not everyone seems to be coughing up.

“The invoice has been sent to all the international outlets, to everyone who took it [McLachlan’s photos], and people are paying up,” says The Australian’s media diary editor Steve Jackson. “Nine News on the other hand, said, ‘no, no, that’s fair use’.”

Jackson was chatting with Claire Harvey on the podcast The Front. Harvey notes that, “Here in Australia, the copyright law is very clear; in fact, if you use anything, unless it’s for the purposes of critique or analysis, you have to pay.”

Jackson and Harvey referred to as Nine News’s resolution to not pay for McLachlan’s images “theft.” But based on the pair, the nationwide information service has a popularity for taking images with out paying after which claiming truthful use.

“It’s a whole rewriting of commercial agreement and honor system,” says Jackson. “It beggars belief it can get to a stage where you’ve got the biggest media company in the country going, ‘We can just take whatever we like, and we’re not going to pay’.”

PetaPixel has reached out to Nine News. A consultant of Banjo McLachlan stated the photographer is unable to remark.