In crime reporting, we should ask better questions about the relevance of religion and ethnicity
The MEAA code of ethics says journalists should not place unnecessary emphasis on personal characteristics, including race, ethnicity or nationality. But what constitutes necessity? Dennis Muller debates the question in this crossposting from The Conversation.
Terrorism and crime played a huge part in the Victorian state election campaign leading up to polling day on November 24.
The Liberal-National opposition has been campaigning on it all year, helped along by its colleagues in the federal government. At one point, federal Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton said people in Melbourne were so terrified of the crime wave that they were frightened to go out to dinner.
His targets were gangs of young men, singled out as African.
It is always appropriate, no exceptions, for the media to report on the person’s ethnicity, as this enables witnesses to more accurately remember who they saw, and members of the public to identity an escaped perpetrator more quickly before he/she commits another crime. Without it the police are powerless, and you end up like the PC-dystopia of the UK.
Religion depends upon whether the religion payed a part in the crime, as it did in Melbourne. There must never be a free pass when a crime is carried out in the name of any religion. Before the usual moral posturers get all high-and-mighty on this, remember religious belief played NO part in the sexual crimes committed by the 7% of Christian clergy accused between 1950-2005 as reported in the Royal Commission. The offenders would have been sexual predators no matter what line of work they were in. Not one case reported was motivated by religious belief, yet the media became a lynch mob against Christianity in general and Catholicism in particular.
To give a free pass to people based on ethnicity is to be an accessory to crimes. Religion should be mentioned when it is demonstrably the catalyst for the crime.
Big call Mike. How’s the weather up there on Planet Ork – raining here.
What a fine article, Denis. Oddly missing, however, was a single instance of the word, truth.
If I may be so bold, what the media must do is to report the truth. They must not filter information, such as race and religion, otherwise it isn’t news. At the very least, an honest journalist should add a disclaimer to any article where any information has been filtered out.