Petition calls for Press Council sanctions on News Corp over treatment of Q&A audience member
More then 10,000 people have signed petition calling for sanctions on News Corp
An online petition calling for sanctions against News Corp and its papers over coverage of Q&A questioner Duncan Storrar has quickly amassed more than 10,000 signatures after claims were published that he had been placed on a suicide watch.
However, the Australian Independent Media Network, which first reported the suicide watch claim, has been unable to verify its authenticity, telling Mumbrella the person who contacted them did not want to be named for fear of also being targeted by media.
AIM published claims Storrar was on suicide watch
After the claim was published on Saturday, Duncan Lorenzo from Tweed Heads launched a petition on Change.org calling for the Australian Press Council to the Australian Commuications and Media Authority to “suspend” News Corp and stop them publishing “for the rest of the election”.
The petition quickly met its 10,000 signature target after highlighting that Storrar had been placed on suicide watch.
The story of the unemployed father living on a disability pension has dominated segments of the media for the past week after he questioned why he could not afford to take his kids to the movies during the broadcast of Q&A on the ABC on Monday.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0UBeGhNK-3I
A tweet from a Q&A producer labelled him a national hero and a GoFundMe campaign to help Storrar out quickly amassed donations of tens of thousands of dollars.
News Corp papers delved into Storrar’s past
But News Corp papers, led by The Australian, Daily Telegraph and Herald Sun, looked into his background and published revelations about his personal life, criminal record and commentary from his children about his role in their upbringing and a call from his son for the money to be given to charity.
The coverage has prompted a social media reaction with supporters of Storrar claiming he has been the subject of a witch hunt and that the coverage is out of proportion to the question that he put to the Q&A panel.
Any complaint sent to the Press Council as a result of the petition is expected to focus on issues of “fairness and balance” and “privacy and avoidance of harm”, which are both part of the council’s statement of general principles.
The principles state in part:
Fairness and balance
3. Ensure that factual material is presented with reasonable fairness and balance, and that writers’ expressions of opinion are not based on significantly inaccurate factual material or omission of key facts.
4. Ensure that where material refers adversely to a person, a fair opportunity is given for subsequent publication of a reply if that is reasonably necessary to address a possible breach of General Principle 3.
Privacy and avoidance of harm
5. Avoid intruding on a person’s reasonable expectations of privacy, unless doing so is sufficiently in the public interest.
6. Avoid causing or contributing materially to substantial offence, distress or prejudice, or a substantial risk to health or safety, unless doing so is sufficiently in the public interest.
A complaint relating to avoidance of harm would likely reference the claims of Storrar being placed on suicide watch.
The reports of him being placed on suicide watch have since been repeated by a number of websites.
Sources at the Australian Independent Media Network, a platform for citizen journalists and bloggers, said that while correspondence had been recieved from someone claiming to be a close freind of Storrar, they have not been able to confirm their identity or the truth of the claim.
Duncan has had enough trauma in his life, and the Murdoch press thinks he needs a bit more. “Let him without sin cast the first stone.”
Let’s stop buying their dreadful papers. To let them and Duncan what we really think.
For goodness sake let Duncan and his family enjoy what little we Australians have given him to help him make up for this county which completely lacks equity at present.
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It’s not like this guy went on Q&A with the sole purpose of asking for money. He didn’t ask for a GoFundMe page to be set up. It’s disgusting how this has been reported and I don’t know why they couldn’t let it go.
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Feel free to spell Herald Sun correctly ie without the hyphen. A media site should do better
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Stop buying their papers? How about we stop buying ads in their papers! Oh, that’s already happening? Good.
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Duncan Storrar has been in prison.
His former wife lives in fear of him.
He has a long criminal record of assault and threats to kill.
How do people know?
His son Aztec Major told New Corp. journalists.
Why?
Because Aztec wanted to tell his side of the story.
And that’s what journalists do.
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The treatment of Mr Storrar by sectors in our media, in my opinion, has gone way too far.
It is actually quite reminiscent of some of the disturbing testimony I heard during the UK’s Leveson Inquiry into practices, ethics and culture within the British Press.
Sadly, Mr Storrar is a victim of an increasingly divisive and vicious Election campaign and the disrupted, competitive media environment.
Great to see people increasingly speaking out about this, getting involved in a petition etc. Be interesting to see if the Press Council does step in.
‘The Standard You Walk Past is the Standard You Accept’.
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Hi BKG,
You’re right it shouldn’t have had a hyphen, that’s been corrected now.
Cheers,
Alex – editor, Mumbrella
Okay, got it.
The ABC can do victim trawling to set up conservatives.
The left can use said victim as a battering ram for their arguments.
But if anybody dares to uncover the truth behind the fraudulent façade then you are the bad guy.
And the snowflake fascists will have a hissy fit until somebody listens to them.
Would be hilarious if it wasn’t so tragic.
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Yeah, but to publish a combined over 20 pages about it and put him on the front page of the biggest paper in the country as a ‘Villain’? That’s ‘just’ what journalists do?
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What ‘story’? A member of the public asked a question of an elected representative about how government policy was affecting the lives of Australian, she stumbled in her response, and The Oz and Herald Sun decided the ‘story’ was actually the person who asked the question. What’s more important – the policy repercussions or the history of the person who dared question it? Where’s critical analysis of policy gone? It’s been abandoned for sensationalism and personality pieces.
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Gotta agree Daryl
If any organisation should be investigated in this sorry saga it’s the ABC. They flew this guy up to Sydney, and made him the patsy.
The double standards of the left know no bounds. If an ABC or Fairfax journalist reported on his background it would be called responsible journalism. But because it was Newscorp it is labelled as bullying..
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why would anyone speak out on QANDA if this is the punishment, what happened to free speech
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I can’t tolerate their heartlessness. It’s tragic that that newspaper is called The ‘Australian’. Its just disgusting.
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