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Today Tonight ‘Unfair Fares’ story breaches Code

A story on 'migrant taxi drivers' who rip off passengers lands Seven in hot water.

ttaYou just know this is going to finish with the sentence, “ACMA does not propose to take any further action,” -right?

Today Tonight has breached the ACMA Code of Practice after it failed to present factual material accurately.

The segment on BTQ7, titled ‘Unfair Fares’, reported on the alleged dishonesty of migrant taxi drivers from non-English speaking backgrounds.

A promo for the story said “Queensland’s taxi drivers exposed. They can’t speak English and don’t know where they are going… or so you think. How they’re using the language barrier to rip you off.”

ACMA concluded that Seven breached the code in relation to statements made about migrant taxi drivers using language as a barrier to cover instances of dishonesty. It also found that a statement made by an interviewee passenger on the quality of a taxi service was not presented accurately in the program promotion.

But ACMA also found that Seven didn’t actually breach the code in relation to gratuitous emphasis on race.

Following the investigation, Seven says the findings will form part of its code training sessions.

In February TT breached the Code for also failing to present material factually while A Current Affair was  recently found to have omitted key facts.

ACMA is currently looking into ongoing issues with networks.

In light of these discussions, ACMA does not, at this stage, propose to take any further action in relation to this matter…..

Source: ACMA

11 Responses

  1. I often think that the UK government is a bit heavy with its regulation of everything, but their TV and advertising regulation system is spot-on. They give their regulators resources and teeth, and so the networks and advertisers are kept in line a bit more. It would be nice if the same system could be used here to rein in ACA and TT. (And maybe make those Nasal Delivery Technology ads a bit more tasteful at the same time.)

  2. As much as these tabloid programs tend to invent reality, it’s also pretty obvious none of you have caught a taxi on the Gold Coast anytime recently.

    As somebody who has lived here all his life, knows the roads well and uses taxis frequently because, well, drinking and driving is apparently ‘a bad thing’, I can tell you that foreign drivers pulling strokes (or attempting to) is not exactly a rare occurrence by any means.

    The owners of said cars are often well aware of the practice, whilst being largely unable to do a great deal about it. Think about it, what recourse do they have? It’s not like the controlling companies or authorities are in any way served by stepping in.

  3. Was this the one where they “exposed” migrant taxi drivers on camera saying they did not know how to get to Circular Quay (in Sydney). Turns out they asked taxi drivers in another city.

  4. Just a small technicality in the article, aren’t they bound by the commercial television codes of practice, not the ACMA codes? As far as I’m aware there aren’t technically ACMA codes, apart from what is written in the law?

  5. They have the greatest of all powers….to create lists of websites to censor!

    Seriously, all you gotta do to skirt ACMA is make sure “their findings form part of the training process”. Which implies current affairs researchers/producers/journos are trained, presumably over a schnitzel and beer at lunchtime.

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