Seven’s house of cards
The man who was incorrectly identified by Seven as the Bondi Junction killer has today settled his defamation case against the network.
Ben Cohen, a 20-year-old university student, received an undisclosed sum of money and an apology in return for discontinuation of proceedings. The apology, from Seven chief executive Jeff Howard, accepted that the misidentification was “a grave mistake”.
This week The Australian reported that Seven had launched an investigation into the misidentification, focused on two news producers on the early morning news shift, contradicting what the ABC reported Seven had told the Cohen family, which was that a junior social media producer was to blame. Sources familiar with Seven’s processes told Media Briefs last week that the excuse offered by Seven was inconceivable.
Briefs asked Seven whether The Australian or the ABC were inaccurate in their reporting, or whether Seven lied to the Cohen family. Briefs also asked whether news gathering from conspiracy theorists on social media (reported to be the primary drivers of the misinformation that Cohen was the attacker) was standard practice in Seven newsrooms.
Seven did not respond in time for publication. The Cohen family declined to comment earlier on Wednesday, with the matter then subject to legal proceedings.
Media integrity under the spotlight
Sticking with media integrity amid the tragedies that have struck Sydney in recent weeks, and Karen Percy, media section president of journalism union MEAA, posted a lengthy thread on social media that was viewed with consternation in some media circles, after several outlets were criticised for their coverage of the Bondi and Wakeley attacks.
Percy said in light of the “understandable concerns about reporting”, there were many ways to “call out bad journalism”. Percy said that if members of the public had concerns about an outlet’s coverage, they should start by contacting an outlet directly with a complaint that had specific and detailed concerns. She also outlined the complaints processes of MEAA as well as the Press Council, the Australian Communications and Media Authority, and FreeTV Australia.
Percy made similar remarks after graffiti condemning the ABC’s coverage of the Israel-Gaza conflict was painted on the broadcaster’s Melbourne headquarters in December last year. Percy said then that if people wanted to “actually effect change” in relation to ABC reporting, they should go through the ABC complaints process.
Media Briefs contacted Percy and asked whether in her experience she had seen substantial changes at news outlets on the basis of complaints, and what she made of criticisms that her remarks may be seen as a union leader seeking complaints against union members.
Percy told Briefs that she knows “there is low trust in the media industry” and that “as a leader in the industry, I think it is my role to defend not just my members but also the integrity of our industry”.
While Percy did not provide an example of a substantial change at a news outlet brought about by a complaint, she refuted the suggestion that she was inviting action against members of her union.
“I have not had a MEAA member say to me that I am inviting action against them,” she said.
“I have had members of the public ask me what I am doing about unethical journalism. Everybody benefits from better accountability and transparency — journalists and their audiences.”
Dog’s breakfast of defamation
Last week saw the Bruce Lehrmann defamation case come to judgment. Today the courts will see a defamation case of a very different style, as lawyer Gina Edwards takes on the Nine Network in the matter of Oscar the cavoodle. The case is set down for judgment today at 2:15pm before Justice Andrew Wigney in the Federal Court.
Edwards, a barrister and former staffer for Barack Obama and Joe Biden, is suing over two 2021 episodes of Nine’s A Current Affair, arguing that the programs made her out to be a dogsitter who refused to return the dog to its co-owner, friend Mark Gillespie.
The Instagram-famous pooch has been at the centre of a legal battle over custody, with the court previously hearing that Edwards along with her husband Ken Flavell and Gillespie were all “co-parents” of Oscar.
Edwards is being represented by prominent Sydney barrister Sue Chrysanthou SC, who also represented Lisa Wilkinson in the Lehrmann case.
Moves
- AFR national reporter Samantha Hutchinson is moving on from the masthead after two years in the role, having previously been a CBD columnist at The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.
