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Seven News, TEN News slapped -over Nine News scene

A 2010 clash between a Nine News crew and a man outside a court has gotten Seven and TEN in trouble, for not showing the man was provoked.

Both Seven News and TEN News have been slapped by the media watchdog following reports in April 2010 in which a man yelled at Nine News crew filming his son leaving a court case.

The story was also scrutinised by Media Watch last year and led to Nine sacking the cameraman.

The courtcase followed headline news about suburban riots in Melbourne at a Bob Jane outlet.

Seven and TEN both broadcast footage of the footpath clash as part of the riots fallout.

ACMA transcript of unedited footage:
X: Please! Please guys, please. I don’t want to push anyone. Please, I said please.
Third party: You don’t push people, mate.
X: Please, I say please. I say please.
Third party: You don’t push people.
X: I say please.
Third party: You don’t push people.
X: I say please, I say please, please leave me alone, please.
Third party: …
X: Please, leave me alone, enough.
Third party: …
X: Go away please. Leave me alone. You want the shot? You already have it. Please go away.
Y: All right, you’ve got me, f***, what do you want? All right, you’ve got my face, is that what you want? Is that what you …want? F*** off!
X: Please, I say please man, please…(Arabic to X)…Please, go away, please.
Third party: You don’t touch me.
X: OK, I don’t touch you. I say please, go away, go.
Third party: You don’t touch people.
X: (indistinct to Y)…Please go away, please, please.
Third party: We’re just doing our jobs.
Third party: F*** off.
X: You say to him f*** off? You say to him f*** off? You say to him f*** off?

ACMA’s findings pertain to the two broadcasts by Seven and TEN, and whether they demonstrated that the men had been provoked or not.

Last year Media Watch‘s Jonathan Holmes said, “In fact both TEN and Seven aired some of the confrontation. Neither gave any hint of how seriously Gad Amr had been provoked.

“He comes across as an aggressive Muslim.”

As a result of its findings ACMA has ruled both broadcasts were not being presented accurately. It says there were “sustained and serious provocations” that led to the conflict that went entirely unmentioned in the reports.

Seven and TEN were not found to have breached fair representation of viewpoints, or reporting in relation to religious or ethnic matters.

But ACMA also did not take a tough line on the role of the Nine News crew in contributing to the scene, aside from acknowledging “third party” provocation.

In response to the ACMA’s findings, both Seven and TEN have written to the complainant and the Australian Human Rights Commission, acknowledging ACMA’s findings.

They have also posted online statements on their websites acknowledging the breaches.

9 Responses

  1. There are plenty of people within netowkr news who are constantly upset and shocked at how 9 7 and 10 “cook up” the sensationalism aspect of most stories and are only too happy to leak the raw footage. Of course if it were me, i would resign rather than go to work each day and be confronted with the constant cognitive dissonance.
    TT has some lovely raw footage of a nameless female reporter dumping a shopping trolley into a creek and then doing a piece to camera about abandoned shooping trolleys. Needless to say she didn’t retrieve. I saw this footage in about 2004 and have been waiting for it to make it out of 7 and onto media watch.
    Back on track – ACMA is gutless and we get the media we deserve.

  2. And sadly this just underscores the flow on effect that stories like these hatchet jobs have … to entrench a negative view of a certain section of the population to people who want to think the worst. It allows networks that run shows like ACA and TT to bully, marginalise and vilify people, without recourse, and it just ain’t right.

    Seriously, if I’d asked someone 27 times to get out of my face I would have decked them too.

  3. @Phoenix727- couldn’t agree more! It’s so pathetic that all this watchdog seems to do/can do is tell the networks that they’re naughty and don’t do it again. Yeah, that will tell them! We need an actual watchdog that can enforce penalties

  4. Once again ACMA has proven how criminally inept they are at keeping the broadcasters in line.

    If you slap them with a big enough fine they’ll think twice about doing it again.

    This telling off won’t even register.

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