All three commercial News bulletins in Melbourne have been found to have breached the Code of Practice over inaccurate reporting.
The Australia Communications and Media Authority has found that ATV Melbourne, GTV Melbourne and HSV Melbourne all reported incidents concerning Sudanese refugees in October 2007. The segments all included closed circuit television footage of a person being arrested who was not Sudanese.
ACMA found that failing to clarify such crucial information meant viewers would have misconstrued the footage as being Sudanese gang activity.
TEN and Nine were also found to have breached the requirement for news to be presented fairly and impartially. ACMA ruled their selection of material, was unfairly juxtaposed and created an unfair presentation, overall, of Sudanese people as being particularly prone to commit violence and crime.
As a result of the findings TEN will distribute the report to news staff and used as an example in regular staff training sessions to assist in achieving future compliance and Nine will include the report in its next round of code training with its News department. Seven will include the report in training materials and a copy will be provided to staff and senior management.
ACMA says it will not exercise its powers at this stage but will monitor news bulletins closely for further breaches.
Photo: stock image
oh maybe they love Sudanese too much, but in a bad way…they wont stop..they truly love spoiling thier name!!!
Yeah, let’s trust commercial TV to make all our judgments. Judge Judy for the High Court! If we don’t like people, we vote them off! Who needs governments making rules?
No matter how trashy and/or offensive a news item may be, I find it highly disturbing that we have out government breathing down the backs of our media in this way.
The factual inaccuracy is one thing, but when it comes to the finding regarding the lack of impartiality – how can we trust a government body to make such a judgement in an impartial way?
the ACMA should change its name to LNDAT that stands for lets not do any thing because that is exactly what they do all the time nothing
Naughty naughty.
ACMA: You’re grounded! Go to your room…
Seven/Nine/Ten:
What a joke. “October 2007″ – over 2 years ago. Penalty. Zero. “Circulate a memo & promise to not do it again”.
Epic fail, it was probably someone from the Sudanese community that picked up the inconsistency as well. Regardless of whether it was a mistake or not, the media should ensure that neutrality is maintained.
How many years does ACMA have to monitor the constant stream of breaches being made before they do something.
Is there any hope of the email complaint option being implemented soon or at all?
It is sooooooo much trouble writing to TV stations and waiting for a reply and then having to write to ACMA.
I have no doubt there would be more slaps on the wrist if the procedure was made easy and then maybe the networks would get their act together.
The networks must just laugh every time ACMA does an investigation… all they have to do is promise to circulate a memo to staff and nothing further comes from it
You said it Byron,total waste of space.
ACMA are useless. All talk, no action