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Geelong Advertiser’s ‘Skull Clue Twist’ image offensive and distressing, says Press Council

The Australian Press Council has censured an image on the front page of the Geelong Advertiser featuring a missing man’s face and a human skull, arguing it will cause “substantial offence” and “distress.”

‘Skull Clue Twist’, an online and print article published on 16 February 2017, included an image with missing man, Paul Kingsbury’s face digitally altered to a human skull.

A sub-headline read: “Revealed: Police suspect grim beach find could be missing man believed murdered.” and the words “Is it Paul Kingsbury?” appeared over the bottom of the image.

The mother of Kingsbury’s child said the image was offensive and distressing and had the potential to affect the mental health and safety of her child.

She argued the child might see the image, and said the publication did not act in a responsible way to avoid distress and offence to her child.

The Geelong Advertiser fought back arguing there was no factual inaccuracies, and illustrating the story with a digitally altered image of the missing man, an illustration of a skull and the headline, was conveying a development in the ‘skull case.’

“On the issue of distress the publication believed it was important to consider the context of this story. The publication said the missing man had links to a bikie club and a series of convictions involving assault and criminal damage,” the Press Council wrote.

“The publication said the story and its presentation—text and images—were sufficiently in the public interest, conveying an important development in a highly publicised criminal saga.

“It said there was a broader public interest in the sense that it was an unsolved case, and the compelling presentation of the story would afford the greatest chance of a member of the public contacting the publication or the authorities with an important piece of information on the case.”

The Press Council said the “graphic blending” of the skull with the missing man was likely to cause substantial offence and distress to the family of the missing man and community.

It went on to say the image would not assist in the investigation, and there was no sufficient public interest justifying the offence or distress caused.

The Press Council upheld the complaint.

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