Fairfax apologises for naming ex-con who ‘requested’ anonymity in ‘Life after prison’ story
Fairfax Media has apologised after naming a convicted murderer it had interviewed on condition of anonymity for an in-depth feature article on adapting to life after prison.
The error happened in the print version of the article ‘Life After Prison: one man’s story’, the cover article in Saturday’s Good Weekend magazine, which followed his first six months of life after release from prison.
The article was the cover story in Good Weekend
In the piece by Tim Elliott the main protagonist is referred to as ‘Samson’ throughout, with the explainer his “name has been changed at his request, along with others in the story”.
This reads as if “Samson” undertook the interview with no intention of anonymity. It was subsequently Fairfax’s own decision to alter his name.
Therefore, while still an embarrassing gaff, it’s not really an issue as anonymity wasn’t originally requested. Is that correct?
Something Fairfax should still be slapped for though, as the outcome in a different case could have been a lot worse – potentially life threatening!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZZ8NaEykeM
Tim Elliot is a good journo. The more you write, the greater the chance of a clanger. At our publication I did a trial for two issues (we run about 50 pages of magazine a month) and had two experienced sub editors sub exactly the same texts. They both missed things, and between the two of them some typos still escaped. So these things do happen, and ‘Sampson’ lost the right to privacy the day he was CONVICTED……