Journalism, the law and you

IF ONLY!







As aspiring journalists nothing is more scary than the prospect of being sued! The main issue dealt with in today's seminar was defamation. Wikipedia defines defamation as 'the communication of a statement that makes a claim, expressly stated or implied to be factual, that may give an individual, business, product, group, government or nation a negative image.' (www.wikipedia.org/wiki/defamation)

For journalists attempting to 'uncover the truth' defamation is something that must always be at the forefront of our minds- for one person's 'truth' is certainly not another's.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/04/04/2208010.htm

Above is the case of the Australian Olympic Committee head John Coates against serial offender 2GB's Alan Jones. It is reported that 'Mr Jones was discussing the collapse of the Olympic rower, Sally Robbins, in the women's eight final in Athens that year. The jury found he implied Mr Coates ordered a cover-up, bullied the crew and was a poor leader. Justice Michael Adams has found the remarks were not true.'

Now Mr Coates walked away with $360 000 in damages from those remarks. $360 000! All from something said on radio - from someone who is paid to express opinions.

Now Jones is a special case, he is not likely to lose his job over something like this. For a young journalist, however, this could be a career killing situation.

It highlights the importance of verification. It also highlights why we are taught to go over every word and sentence before submitting work. Wording a sentence in the wrong way could land you in hot water very quickly- particularly if you are lucky enough to be picked up by a large news organisation, where messy journalism is highly penalised, let alone illegal journalism!

John spoke in his presentation and then later in discussion the way the internet is creating more room for error in this situation. Once again the concept of immediate news and incredibly tight deadlines in light of the technological age made an appearance in class discussion- highlighting the increasing difficulty of carrying out qulaity investigative journalism. Legally this has much more serious personal consequences for the journalist than any of the other issues faced in class.

Each week I seem to return to the importance of that V word... verification! But the more we go on the more class discussion is beginning to convince me that I may have to accept that due to the tech age high quality journalism is just about out of our reach.