6 News Australia | |
Headquarters: | Melbourne, Victoria, Australia |
Owner: | Atelier Puglisi Pty Ltd[1] |
Former Names: | HMV Local News (2019−2020) |
Founder: | Leonardo Puglisi |
Launch Date: | 20 March 2019 |
6 News Australia (also known simply as 6 News) is a streaming news channel based in Melbourne, Australia. The channel is known for a large portion of its journalists being teenagers.[2] [3]
6 News was founded in 2019 as HMV Local News by Leonardo Puglisi, who was 11 years old at the time. The channel changed its name to 6 News on 1 January 2020.[4]
In August 2021, the channel was suspended by YouTube for a week after uploading a video of then-MP George Christensen, which violated YouTube's policy against COVID-19 misinformation. The suspension was overturned after it was determined "there was sufficient context" to allow the video to be published.[5]
The channel gained national media attention in early 2022 during the federal election campaign, after conducting interviews with then-Prime Minister Scott Morrison and then-Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese.[6]
After Labor senator Fatima Payman crossed the floor to support recognising the State of Palestine, 6 News was the first news outlet to interview her.[7] [8]
In January 2024, Perth Lord Mayor Basil Zempilas was captured on a hot mic apparently referring to the Australian Open women's final as a "reserve game", prior to a press conference announcing he was joining the Liberal Party. A clip of the comment was posted on X (formerly Twitter) by 6 News.[9]
Zempilas later said that he was taken out of context, and that he was referring to a "derby" between reporter Michael Genovese and his partner hosting the news on different channels, which Genovese later confirmed.[10] 6 News deleted their post and Puglisi stated that the channel's practices would be reviewed.[9]