Police tape is seen at a lock downed apartment building at Devitt Street in the south western suburb of Blacktown in Sydney, on July 28, 2021. (Mick Tsikas/AAP Image via AP)

       SYDNEY (Kyodo) -- The YouTube channel of Sky News Australia has been suspended from uploading new content for a week in relation to the video platform's policies on COVID-19, the conservative cable news broadcaster has said.

       The 24-hour-channel owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp Australia was issued the suspension after YouTube, as part of a review of content for compliance with the policies on COVID-19 misinformation, found and removed several videos.

       The TV station said in a statement on its website Sunday that it acknowledged YouTube's right to enforce its policies but disagreed with the result of the review, saying no videos denying the existence of COVID-19 were uploaded to its YouTube channel.

       The action by YouTube followed recent criticism of coronavirus commentary by veteran Sky News Australia presenter Alan Jones, according to reports by local media.

       On July 19, the TV station was forced to apologize for a video in which Jones and Australian policymaker Craig Kelly claimed the Delta variant is not dangerous, a report of The Guardian on Sunday said.

       Regarding the suspension on new uploads to Sky News Australia's channel, a YouTube spokesperson said, "We have clear and established COVID-19 medical misinformation policies based on local and global health authority guidance, to prevent the spread of COVID-19 misinformation that could cause real-world harm," in a statement emailed to Kyodo News on Monday.

       The TV station boasts 1.86 million YouTube subscribers, the most of any of Australia's commercial news networks.

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