Seven lands Schapelle Corby interview exclusive
Seven appears to have landed the exclusive interview with Schapelle Corby after a bidding war between them, Nine, Ten and magazine groups Bauer and Pacific Magazines.
After being released today, Corby was picked up by Seven’s Sunday Night reporter Mike Willesee and whisked away to a secret location, following a fierce bidding war which erupted when the news Corby was set to be paroled broke on Friday.
Seven has also been given access to Corby’s mother Ros’ home on the Gold Coast to see a group of supporters toasting the release of her daughter after seven years.
Channel Seven is refusing to confirm a deal has been done, but rival outlets are suggesting they have secured an exclusive interview, with figures between $1m and $3m quoted for the rights. Industry sources have suggested the family has demanded a minimum of $2m.
The story is a coup for Seven which has been looking to bolster Sunday Night after rejigging its news department and moving Helen Kapalos from Today Tonight to the show, and focusing host Chris Bath on it.
It is understood other networks had not had a chance to present their offers to the family before the deal was confirmed, with speculation the deal had been sealed some months ago, and kept so secret at the network even reporters covering events in Bali were unaware of it.
Nine’s decision to air the Schapelle docudrama about the incident last night is also believed to have angered the family, who had previously opposed it being made, and may have put them at a disadvantage. The show got just over a million metropolitan viewers pitted against Seven’s major telemovie of the year INXS: Never Tear Us Apart.
However, Seven is also seen as something of a surprise winner, after it was forced to pay damages in to Schapelle’s sister Mercedes after a jury found she had been defamed by Today Tonight. It is not clear whether any deal would involve rights for magazines from Seven West Media’s stable Pacific Magazines, which includes magazines including WHO, That’s Life and Famous.
A fortnight ago Seven dumped Today Tonight from the schedules on the east coast where it ramped up its news offering with a one hour bulletin in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane this month as part of a push to bolster current affairs against a resurgent Nine.
Both Seven and Nine had promoted rolling coverage of Corby’s release with Seven stationing reporters Melissa Doyle, Robert Ovadia and Grant Taylor outside the Kerobakan Prison and outside of Mercedes Corby’s home in Bali, as well as sending Sunrise correspondent Michelle Tapper to Bali to provide coverage.
Nine’s rolling coverage started on Friday with Peter Overton providing an overview of the case and commentary, reporting and analysis from Mark Burrows, Tracy Vo, Michael Best and Chris Allen in Bali, with Lizzie Pearl in Jakarata.
Megan Reynolds
Country sends convict to Australia.
How is this new news?
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$3m for a 10 year stint in jail.
$300,000 per year. Not bad.
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I can’t wait for Schapelle’s debut on Dancing with the Stars!
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Doesn’t that contravene the 2002 Proceeds of Crime Act?
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Given nearly twice as many people tuned into the INXS story that the Corby drama, I would have thought paying $2m was way over the odds for an exclusive with this family of bogans
GROSS.
Shame on every idiot involved with paying out this convicted criminal, dumb enough to take kilos of weed to Bali…
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Convicted crims shouldn’t be allowed to profit from their crimes.
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Makes sense. If you were watching Ch 7’s commentary they made no attempt to go into the media scrum to grab first pictures. They also held back in the Prosecutors office and didn’t seem to mind that Karl was broadcasting Live to Ch 9 in the background. It all seemed very relaxed on air unlike the manic chaos on other networks. Liked the casual mention of 4 matching black vans “in hot pursuit” and the casual mention by Ch 7 reporter that “Oh and Mike Willesee and the Sunday night crew are in one of the vans…..”
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A new definition for ‘obscene’when they update the dictionaries.
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Story about bogans for bogans.
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Seriously….Corby is on probation and could risk going back to jail if anything is said to upset the Indonesians. What are the media thinking? Wait until she has finished her probation.
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This will be top of my list of ‘things I must miss in 2014’.
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What message are they sending.. Commit a crime, spend a few yrs in jail, come out a millionaire!
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so bored already,
especially the breathy Network proclamations of “BREAKING NEWS” and live crosses
This is news?
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Almost as bad as Woman’s Weekly doing a feature on that criminal carl willams’ mum (which has somehow miraculously disappeared from the web) and glorifying John Ibrahim.
The media should stop attempting to humanise criminals for sales. It’s disgusting.
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At the end of this interview airing, TVs tuned into it should release a toxic gas, killing everyone that watched it.
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They may well avoid the Proceeds of Crime Act, but it is still unethical. I’m tired of reading about a convicted drug smuggler who is about to profit from her crime.
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Australia made the right decision last night celebrating great music and talent.
I think some of us in the media are obsessed by Mr Corby.
What about the other (less photogenic) people languishing in overseas jails.
I’m detecting a backlash against this overkill of everything Corby related.
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The ONLY thing i care about from all of these live crosses to the door of the jail.. is … WHAT DOES THAT SIGN OVER THE DOOR SAY?
It looks like its advertising Kerobakan’s, next top model/xfactor/Bali Idol?
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Sorry Ms Corby!
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You can keep her thanks.
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knowing the family is getting money for the interview, i will refuse to watch this.
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This is the biggest Australian news story of the year, I don’t know what you guys are on about. Pretty sure you will all be watching.
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Seadog, I am pretty sure the 2002 Proceeds from Crimes Act conviction has to happen within a State or Territory of Australia. There is no provision for any overseas conviction.
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“Underbelly: Bogan Nation”
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Disgusting – i won’t be watching
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not sure how this gets around the Proceeds of Crime Act: “Literary proceeds orders allow the Commonwealth to recover any profits made through the commercial exploitation of the notoriety gained from committing an indictable offence or a foreign indictable offence”
http://www.aic.gov.au/publicat.....cb001.html
Can anyone explain?
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Dan …..obviously you work at Seven. The media is obsessed with this trash not the nation.
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We’ve been taken for mugs. I felt pity for her but the more that is revealed about her backstory, I believe that she was guilty, and now she walks away from this a multi-millionaire.
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Shame on Seven!
We are teaching our children that crime pays.
Why are we rewarding this criminal behaviour?
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@Dan … “This is the biggest Australian news story of the year …” Sorry to tell you but Toyota announced it was closing down in Australia today, after Ford and GMH, marking the end of car manufacturing in this country and costing of up to 50,000 jobs when you count the knock-on effect in parts manufacturing. Get a grip, mate. Occasionally news means more than providing bread and circuses to keep the dimwits sedated in front of their TVs.
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Wow. $2 million. That is a LOT of spliffs.
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Now we’ ll ALL want to spend 10 years in a Balinese prison
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Agree Ruth – spot on. Who said crime doesn’t pay?
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Is the 300,000 per year – after tax ?….
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The mags better get first right of refusal for her wedding pics as well.
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So how much of the $3m is going to the Indonesian Parole Board for letting her our earlier?
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Hope Schapelle gets dirty, stinking rich off all this…
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It can be argued that the $3mil is not a proceed of crime which make the proceeds of crime act inapplicable. Reason being is because she is getting paid $3mil for an interview about her past crimes, she didnt get $3mil directly from drug smuggling. regardless, she doesnt deserve a cent of it.
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Refugees burnt by Navy? – No real media investigation.
David Jones bosses gone for insider trading – no real media investigation
WA Senate elections fixed? – no real media investigation.
Bogan Drug trafficker released from prison… 25+ “journalists”, photogs etc all chasing the “story”, news papers and tv news reports filled with irrelevant cr@p
What a fvcking joke, if the Australian media wants to know why our newspapers are failing and the public has no respect for journalists, its not the internet, its not generational….
THIS IS YOUR ANSWER!
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“It can be argued that the $3mil is not a proceed of crime which make the proceeds of crime act inapplicable. Reason being is because she is getting paid $3mil for an interview about her past crimes, she didnt get $3mil directly from drug smuggling.”
No, that’s not a valid argument. Interviews about her past conduct can fall within the scope of a literary proceeds order under the Act. Section 152(2) of the Act provides that, on application of the DPP or the commissioner of the AFP, a court can make an order requiring a person to pay an amount to the Commonwealth if the court is satisfied that the person has committed a foreign indictable offence and that said person has derived “literary proceeds” in relation to the offence.
Literary proceeds are subsequently defined in s 153 as “any benefit that a person derives from the commercial exploitation” of the notoriety resulting from the commission of the offence, including:
(a) publishing any material in written or electronic form; or
(b) any use of media from which visual images, words or sounds can be produced; or
(c) any live entertainment, representation or interview.
Personally, I hope the interview bombs and the payment is confiscated.
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Let her be proven innocent & demonstrate a total miscarriage of justice ONLY then can she can be rewarded. Right now Shapelle Corby is a CONVICTED drug courier who would have reaped the rewards of drug smuggling & destroyed many lives had she succeeded. She is not a rock star hero & any payment sends a message to would be drug mules that CRIME PAYS. Shame on any media group that pays money to glorify drugs & crime!! Your have become accessories to crime.
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Yes please lets glorify a convicted criminal and show the next generation that if your a criminal you will make millions and be in the spotlight…that’s just what we want!!!
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I think all the stories of her or her family should be black listed so no money will be made ,I seen this when I was looking up how much us tax payers had to pay helping a drug pusher and will it all be returned with interest
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It will be ironic if the current Federal Government, no respecter of Indonesian Rights, their expectation NOT to be spied upon, their Soverign Waters NOT to be encroached by the R.A.N. suddenly starts waving International treaties about.
Specifically the U.N. agreement on Illicit Narcotics Traffic et al, ratified in 1992.under then Prime Minister Keating.
Can you imagine Mr Abbott running to Bam Bam with Keating’s Treaty saying they (the Indonesians) should respect the law?
I’m loving it already…
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Oh PLEASE!! Jump off Mount LOFTY you bunch of moronic, transparently jealous bozos!: You stinking bloody little dictatorial autocratic bully’s, sitting in the comfort of your own padded lounge chair ‘cells’ passing sweeping moral judgements on a ‘fellow Australian’ despite the ‘LOGS’ bulging from from own eye apparently blinding you to the TIME already SERVED and hell already paid for the bag of grass in her luggage!
Um! Was there any such backlash for the murderous mongrel Chopper Reed?? Didn’t he write books and have t.v interviews and movies made about his hideous, cruel and wicked life?! Is it because she has remained a very attractive woman…. would we be ok with her sharing her story if she’d lost all her teeth as well as her mind??
Watch the new release mini serious called ‘ BETTER MAN’ about Van Nugent…. murdered in Singapore for attempting to smuggle Heroin out during flight change and then report back and see if your hearts of ice haven’t become a little softened by ‘the HUMAN’ story behind the media hype or worse, the story which MUST prevail in order to keep our citizens alive until their weary frazzled generally repentant minds and hearts are ‘safe’ back in our more ‘humane’ sentencing systems….
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Randomn Writer calm down you’ll give yourself a heart attack…..had you been all night drinking?
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Who were the other 1699 prisoners who were given parole at the same time? Does anyone want to pay them $300000 per year of imprisonment. I think not. Keep her over there we don’t need her or her stories
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Del, this is the mdia.
It’s not about if anyone wants to pay anything – it’s a simple calculation Channel Seven has made; that for somewhere between one and three million, they can claw back viewers, commercials and sponsorsip in excess of that.
Nothing more, nothing less.
Maybe that can win them the ratings and they can increase their rates in line with a win.
It used to be said that one rating point was worth three milion dollars for the Network in extra revenue.
Remember what Murdoch was prepared to pay for Hitler’s diaries? Hitler, you know, all-time bad guy. Rupert was only disappointed when they turned out to be fake. (I think they ran them anyway).
Ahhh, the Media. Trashy one day, unscrupulous the next.
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OMG, I HAVE IT!!!
I know what Seven must do.
First, when Microsot paid $14M for a Rolling Stones song, people said it was too much. HOWEVER, that deal got them – and their product – metioned on EVERY News broadcast; TV, radio, press, blogs for almost a week. What’s THAT media buy worth? More than 14M I’d bet. And that, was the real game.
SO –
Channel Seven must announce they’re paying more, much more than the $3M already quoted. Why not $5M?
At the same time, some of their people (Kochie?) must denounce the deal.
That way, they’re playing both sides of the ethics game.
THEN they make some shows debating the matter and sell commercials like mad.
FINALLY, they “decide” not to proceed with the deal and save their three mil.
They’ve already got the Nation talking, if they’re smart we’ll be talking about existing shows and ratings might well go up.
They’ve had their cake and eaten it too.
All that remains is for someone to sue them for breach of contract, They’ll settle out of court for two million, thus sheilding that money from Proceeds of Crime AND Schapelle will not have broken her parole and will not have spoken about anything.
It’s Meerkat “simples”.
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Challenge to Channel 7: You’ve had 10 years to investigate John Howards claims that Australian airport baggage handlers loaded the stuff. So what about it?? Who dunnit? Did you send out news crews to get the details of who was on the shift for that plane, or attempt to get cctv footage of the area?
Come to think of it- same challenge to John Howard too.
Shamma has it spot on – the proceeds of crime legislation covers “foreign indictable offences”.
If this was marijuana coming into Australia I wonder if there would be all this hype from the bogans like Random Writer supporting “Our Schappelle” She’s been found guilty. I hope she rots in hell!
Ch 7 you’ve lost my support. Maybe we should all boycott them for a day? that would fix them
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For gods sake just leave her alone!!!!! You have a lot to answer for channel 7!!!!!!!
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Why are people still saying 7 were paying 3 million when all parties have said it was no where near that? Or even near 1 million? Someone in the media made this claim up and bogan Australia believe everything they hear.
I for one don’t care if they make some money, wouldn’t be the first person convicted of a crime to do so. I’m sure they have plenty of legal fees to pay off.
If Shapelle gets to say something perhaps the media will stop following her and she can get on with her life, it’s like when celebs give away pics of their baby just to stop the paps trying to get the first shot.
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Schapelle nor her family have received 3 million dollars. Who came up with that??? The media have a lot to answer for.
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