Press Council censures The Weekend Australian over kangaroo hunt disclosure
The Australian Press Council (APC) has reprimanded the The Weekend Australian over an article on kangaroo hunting it published in January, which failed to adequately disclose that the author had travelled at the expense of kangaroo mince company Macro Meats.
The adjudication is one of several the the national broadsheet has been putting under close scrutiny publicly as it continues to put pressure on the APC and chair Julian Disney, as part of an ongoing campaign around its practices and scope.
In the latest case the APC found the paper failed to adequately disclose a conflict if interest after the journalist had travelled to the kangaroo hunt at the expense of Macro Meats, stating only that he had travelled courtesy Liquid Ideas, Macro’s PR company.
However, it rejected complaints by the Australian Society for Kangaroos which argued the article was inaccurate and unfair because it said that kangaroo harvesting involved “world’s best practice”, is “tightly regulated”, and “the most humane harvest in the world” ruling that these were “subjective assessments by the journalist rather than verified statements of fact.”
Holy cow, it took 8 months to come up with that?
Shooting kangaroos and then discover a living joey in the pouch. Pray tell Micro Meats, what happens next?
Of course there ‘s a clear conflict of interests. If Macro meats paid for the journalist to write a report on kangaroo killing, of course it’s going to be sanitized and “best practice! Tasting and evaluating food of course has a subjective element, but not when it comes to the killing fields, and the mass slaughter of our wildlife!