Press watchdog criticises SMH for failing to do ‘basic fact-checking’ over Paul Sheehan rape column
The Australian Press Council (APC) has criticised the Sydney Morning Herald for failing to do “basic fact-checking” over a piece by columnist Paul Sheehan in February of this year which claimed police failed to act on allegations of a gang rape by a group of Middle Eastern men.
Fairfax was forced to apologise and stand Sheehan down over the opinion column, with the APC today finding it that breached the standards requiring them to take reasonable steps to verify or justify a report.
In its ruling the APC noted the article “concerned serious and distressing allegations that would likely cause substantial offence, distress and/or prejudice” before noting that all of Sheehan’s claims “would have been readily dismissed with basic fact-checking, but this was not done.”
In the article entitled ‘The horrifying untold story of Louise’ Sheehan reported that ‘Louise’ had described the men who attacked her as “MERC – Middle Eastern raping c—s”, and claimed the police took no action over her allegations.
A tweet from the SMH promoting the original column
In a subsequent column, Sheehan admitted he should not have penned the original article due to a lack of evidence, admitting it had emerged that the woman made similar claims of rape at rallies organised by the radical anti-Islam group Reclaim Australia. The paper later issued a formal apology over the column.
The Council also noted that the Sydney Morning Herald had “conceded that the article breached fundamental standards of journalistic practice” but noted that it had published a correction and apology.
According to the Council: “Standards also require that reasonable steps be taken to publish a correction or take other adequate remedial action where material is significantly inaccurate or misleading.
“Given the subsequent publication of critical articles and letters and other steps taken, the Council did not consider there was a breach in this respect.”
Sheehan has subsequently left the newspaper. Fairfax has declined to comment.
The full APC finding:
The Press Council has considered whether its Standards of Practice were breached by an article in The Sydney Morning Herald on 22 February 2016 headed “The horrifying untold story of Louise” in print and with a similar headline online. It reported on the alleged rape of “Louise” by men she said were Arabic-speaking and described as “MERCs. Middle Eastern raping c—-”, and said the NSW Police took no action.
The Council noted that the article concerned serious and distressing allegations that would likely cause substantial offence, distress and/or prejudice, and it was necessary to be especially rigorous in determining their veracity. All of them would have been readily dismissed with basic fact-checking, but this was not done. The Council concluded that reasonable steps were not taken to verify the report and to avoid substantial offence, distress and prejudice in breach of the Council’s Standards.
The Council’s Standards also require that reasonable steps be taken to publish a correction or take other adequate remedial action where material is significantly inaccurate or misleading. Given the subsequent publication of critical articles and letters and other steps taken, the Council did not consider there was a breach in this respect.
*A previous version of this story incorrectly said that the council had not found a breach.
Where were the editorial checks? (Oh, are there any Fairfax editors left)? Where were basic journalist principles? Unfortunately Paul Sheehan had form in allowing his own opinions, prejudices, to override basic factual evidence – which in this case simply didn’t exist. A made up story. Regrettably he is just part of a trend in politics and media.
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why would anyone advertise? they flushed their credibility down the shitter the same way News did. Dopey.
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