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Children revealed in Nine’s Families of Crime

Nine's documentary on Carl Williams, hurried to air yesterday, neglected to disguise the face of a child.

Nine rushed its special to air last night depicting the life of convicted killer Carl Williams, after his murder was reported yesterday afternoon.

It was an astute programming reaction to breaking news to bring forward the “Baby Faced Killer” episode from the upcoming series Australian Families of Crime. The series now begins on Sunday night.

But the archival footage that was used in the doco crossed a highly-contentious line when it failed to disguise the face of Williams’ daughter (cropped out of shot here).

Yesterday the Herald Sun reported Victoria Police were paying school fees on behalf of Williams, which experts have noted could have led to his vulnerability in prison.

While the footage of Williams outside courts was clearly several years old, Williams’ daughter is still a minor today.

What are the responsibilities of networks to protect the innocent?

Or did Nine rush this documentary to air without going over its contents in the context of the day’s events?

Will it now apologise to the family for this error of judgement?

Earlier this year Nine was criticized for the telemovie on Maria Korp with claims its sordid tone would impact on her teenage son.

But surely Williams’ daughter is no participant in an Australian family of crime.

16 Responses

  1. Ridiculous , regardless of whether it was slipped out by the media or not, this child is always going to be in the media because her parents, more so father chose to put her there.

  2. Good story David, and important as well. We are kidding ourselves if we allow a race to the bottom on this stuff. just because enough news networks all act irresponsibly doesn’t mean that as a community we should accept this behavior. Do we really want Womens Day journalistic standards on the 6pm news (no we are not quite there yet imo)?

  3. I didn’t see the channel 9 story that was on this morning you refer to, but I do know that a gang known by the name of “the POW’s” has been named in reports.

  4. Slow news day David? I can see your point but as others have stated her picture has been widely seen in the media for some time so to use Nine as the scape goat is a bit rich!

    1. Glad you see the point then Marc. I haven’t used Nine as a scapegoat. I’ve responded to what I have seen. I thought it was a poor inclusion. The story could have been effectively told without going there, particularly on the day a child would be in mourning. Networks should be upholding duty of care in news and documentaries and we should ask if we are happy with current standards.

  5. Did anyone else hear the Nine news reporter this morning refer to inmates at Barwon as “POWs”! How insulting to our servicemen, comparing them to common criminals. I can just imagine how fast the RSL was on the phone …

  6. a curent affair was pathetic last night roberta banging on about carl being a doting father and soft soul , bloke was a mass murderering grub , show him the real light!

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