Daily Telegraph issues correction over wrong drug death pic other publishers refused to run
The Daily Telegraph has apologised for using a picture of the wrong woman while naming the victim of a drug overdose at the Stereosonic music festival on its front page yesterday.
The News Corp owned newspaper apologised “for any distress” the image “may have caused” to Sylvia Choi’s family, stating the newspaper confirmed the validity of the photograph by speaking to Choi’s neighbours.
Mumbrella understands a number of news outlets including Fairfax and Nine and Seven News had discovered the same image on a publicly available Facebook profile page under the name of Sylvia Choi who lives in Sydney, but decided not to run it because the page itself looked suspicious.
The Facebook profile has only the image of the woman with a hand hiding her face, and has just 13 friends.
“Despite extensive inquiries made by The Daily Telegraph to confirm the validity of the photograph, including showing it to neighbours who stated it was her, we now accept that was not the case and we sincerely apologise for any distress this may have caused Ms Choi’s family,” the correction stated.
The Daily Telegraph published the incorrect photo on its front page yesterday, with the image also running online, before the police circulated a correct image of Choi yesterday afternoon forcing the paper to change its articles online.
News Corp again declined to comment on how the photo was sourced and why The Daily Telegraph chose to run the image when other publishers did not.
Miranda Ward
The Tele just doesn’t understand apologies. They should come without feeble excuses. Clearly, the inquiries were not “extensive”. The paper would have been better off apologising unreservedly.
They took it from a facebook profile with like 10 friends, it was SO obvious it wasn’t the real victim or even a real account…
I assumed they’d be forced to publish an apology for getting the facts wrong, again, in their latest Clover Moore attack. That seems to be the Tuesday routine. But no, it’s about the wrong front page photo of a supposed overdose victim, published because they were so desperate to get the scoop on other, clearly smarter media outlets. Then again, their xenophobic editorial stance probably meant in this case they didn’t think it would make a difference whether or not they used a photo of the actual victim.
on a side issue peoples, go over to today’s TheConversation.com and read the article on Drug Checking and the need to have it in Oz – now there’s an idea that would save a life or two or three, regardless of which pic the Tele pulls from its bum
and if it’s U too then consider some pro bono work promoting the need