Daily Mail to contest Ten’s injunction banning them from running Bachelorette spoiler photos
The Daily Mail is set to challenge a court injunction granted to Network Ten which forced the news website to pull down a spoiler story about The Bachelorette.
A spokesman for Daily Mail Australia this morning said: “We were served with an injunction by Network Ten, but we have not had sight of the reasons for the judge’s decision.
“We swiftly abided by the terms of the injunction, however, but shall be challenging the terms of that injunction immediately as we do not consider that such a decision is either fair or right.”
(This report does contain spoilers)
The Daily Mail has also posted a story about its decision to fight Ten as Bachelorette Sam Frost has spoken out about the spoiler story saying she was “absolutely gutted” about its decision to publish.
In a statement Ten said: “Network Ten is looking at its options in seeking relief, including costs and a permanent injunction. As the matter is back before the court on Monday, we will not be making any further comment.”
A paparazzi photographer apparently discovered the location of an exclusive photoshoot for News Corp’s The Daily Telegraph with Sam Frost and Sasha Mielczarek who won the dating show, and shot pictures through the window of the hotel room while the shoot was in progress. The Daily Mail then published the photos and a headline featuring the names of the winner as its main story, without warning fans of the spoiler.
That led to a strong reaction from The Daily Telegraph last night who posted the initial headline: ‘Dear Daily Mail: F*** you. Sincereley, Everyone.”
There was also an outpouring of criticism from fans of the show aimed at the Daily Mail, which is a joint partnership with Ten’s rival Nine Network in Australia.
Depending on the circumstance of how the photos were taken the Daily Mail may be in breach of the Press Council’s statement of principles around privacy. The principles state that publishers should “avoid intruding on a person’s reasonable expectations of privacy, unless doing so is sufficiently in the public interest”.
The Daily Mail is expected to contest on the grounds that although the images were taken using a long lens camera into a hotel room, the couple were not in a private situation as they were in the midst of the Daily telegraph photoshoot at The Darling Hotel in Sydney, close to Ten’s headquarters.Ten also filmed a thank you from the couple to fans in the room.
.@Sam_Frost and Sasha have a special message to share with you all! #BacheloretteAU https://t.co/m9ftq6Vtah
— #BacheloretteAU (@BacheloretteAU) October 22, 2015
The Daily Mail ran their story around 5pm yesterday but was then forced to take down the article and replaced it with another article based on the hit show, which is one of Ten’s most successful this year.
Ten is refusing to comment but could be in court as early as today.
Daily Mail Australia signed up to the Press Council less than two months ago.
The Daily Mail quickly began to trend on Twitter, with viewers accusing the website of ruining their evening’s plans. Unmoderated comments on the Daily Mail website were also highly critical.
Nic Christensen
Timeline of The Bachelorette spoiler:
Thursday, October 22
Midday – Channel Ten invited Sydney’s Daily Telegraph to the Darling Hotel to watch an episode of the finale and interview the couple for a story that would run on the front page of today’s newspaper.
The hotel is the same one Ten used for the Bachelor and a photographer for Matrix Media was in another building alongside with a long lens taking photos.
Yesterday afternoon – The Matrix photos were then sold to Daily Mail which is known among the media for paying top dollar for exclusive rights to digital photos.
5.09pm – The Daily Mail runs the photos in a story written by senior reporter Danielle Gusmaroli in a story headlined “Bachelorette Sam Frost and Sasha Mielczarek are spotted kissing and cuddling hour before show finale”.
5.20pm – The story quickly bring an angry social media reaction with fans of the show denouncing the decision to reveal which bachelor Frost had chosen.
6.00pm – Ten was quick to dispatch its lawyer Bruce Burke from Banki Haddock Fiora seeking to get an interim injunction and the story removed from the web.
8.00pm – Within hours Ten had been successful in getting the Supreme Court to grant the injunction with Ten understood to have cited the potential damage the story could cause to the show’s audience.
The story is taken down from the Daily Mail just before 9pm.
9.07pm – The winner of The Bachelorette is revealed with Sam Frost choosing to give the last rose to Sasha Mielczarek going to air just after 9pm.
Friday, October 23
9.15am – OzTam reveals the Bachelorette announcement was watched by a metro audience of 1.52m and a national audience of 1.92m.
9.52am – Ten announces it will do a second season of The Bachelorette in 2016.
Related content:
- Daily Mail takes down The Bachelorette spoiler story after Ten wins court injunction
- Daily Mail accused of ruining viewing plans of Bachelorette fans by publishing apparent spoiler
“The Daily Mail than published the photos…” (then)
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Its all fair in the TV world.
Maybe TEN should film the show culminating in a live finale rather than hiding the result for months.
They create the public demand and frenzy and then complain when they lose control.
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Hi Anonymous,
Thanks for flagging, changed now.
Cheers,
Alex – editor, Mumbrella
Putting emotions aside it appears one was smarter than the other. This is only b/c one capitalised on an opportunity b/c of delayed telecast practices, compared to the publics need for real time information. It only seems fair given the obivous gap in practices.
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