SMH appoints Judy Prisk as its first readers’ editor
The Sydney Morning Herald and sister title The Sun-Herald has become the first major Australian newspaper to appoint a readers editor.
Although new for Australia, the move is some way behind other countries. The first readers ombudsman was believed to have been for the Asahi Shimbun in Tokyo in 1922. The Courier-Journal and The Louisville Times was the first US group to create the role, in 1967. And in Canada, The Toronto Star created a similar role in 1972. The UK’s first readers ombudsman was for The Guardian from 1997.
The Herald has appointed Judy Prisk into the role. She will report in to publisher Peter Fray.
According to the SMH’s announcement, Prisk’s first readers’ editors column will be published on Wednesday.
Tim Burrowes founded Mumbrella in 2008. He worked on Mumbrella until 2021. At various points he was editor, content director and editor-at-large.
Linkedin
I’m a grass-roots activist, and one of the founding members of Women for Schapelle, an Australian woman jailed in a Bali hell-hole on extremely dubious drug charges. Just as baby-eating dingoes weren’t good for massive investments in the Northern Territory tourist industry (as per the Lindy Chamberlain case), drug smuggling baggage handlers are very bad news for Qantas. Further innocent Australian tourists in Indonesian jails are also very bad news for bi-lateral relations, and massive overseas investments. Hence there is a huge amount of irrefutable information relating to this case that the Australian media have collectively buried. And as you can see from this recent blog post of mine, Judy Prisk has no interest in uncovering the facts either (she point blank refused to help) . . . http://womenforschapelle.blogs.....sk-of.html
User ID not verified.
I totally agree with what Kim Bax has written above.
Australian readers want the truth not what the multinational corporations have told the media to print.
It’s about time the Australian media stood up for themselves and printed the TRUTH.
User ID not verified.
Agree also with Kim Bax & Debi Robinson. Media should be reporting the truth..
User ID not verified.
Agree. Media should be reporting the truth..
User ID not verified.
Here in Europe people are shocked to see how Australia treats their own! An Australian woman was a victim of an obvious violation of human rights and the Australian government and media did nothing to help her, they actually did the contrary! They made her and her family look like drug smugglers which they are not and in doing so pulled a wall over the publics eyes!
User ID not verified.
The Sun Herald is responsible for so many of the propagandistic lies and smears against Schapelle Corby that this appoinmtment just isn’t credible. It smacks of a PR gimmick.
Reporting the truth isn’t hard. So why don’t they just do it? You know, the FACTS… like her begging for CCTV, begging to have the drugs tested, begging for DNA and fingerprinting, begging for an investigation of herself in Australia. None of which a guilty person would ever do. And there are so many other facts which the Herald has shoved under the carpet for years.
Instead they treat us to obvious fabrications about her father, on the simple basis that dead men can’t sue.
This is the most shameful episode in Australian journalistic history, and a PR face isn’t going to hide it. The agenda of the Herald may fool the sheep, but thinking people can see it for what it is. The world can see it for what it is in increasing numbers, as the other comments demonstrate, and unfortunately for the Herald, their role in this stain on Australia will come back to haunt them.
User ID not verified.