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MEAA urges publishers to provide more support to reporters following Daily Mail incident

The Media, Entertainment & Arts Alliance (MEAA) is attributing lack of resources and an “absence of oversight” to the firing of a Daily Mail Australia reporter this week and urged publishers to provide more support to journalists.

According to The Guardian, Daily Mail Australia fired a reporter who ‘accidentally’ uploaded her own work about reality television contestants being “vapid cunts” on Sunday.

The reporter, April Glover, was said to have accidentally copied and pasted the paragraph from a Google document.  The content was left on the page for a number of hours before it was edited.

“Florence initially rose to fame on Matty J’s season of The Bachelor, before unsuccessfully trying her luck at love again in Paradise,” she initially wrote.

“But most people who were educated at a high-school level know these vapid cunts only go on the shows to find mediocre Instagram fame and make a living promoting teeth whiteners and unnecessary cosmetic procedures.”

According to LinkedIn, Glover had been working with Daily Mail Australia for more than a year.

Yesterday afternoon, the journalists union released a statement urging digital media employees to provide more support to staff.

Katelin McInerney, director of MEAA Media said stories should go through a regular copy-editing process, ‘at the very least’.

The MEAA added while journalists should be accountable for their mistakes, it is not fair to expect junior staff to take full responsibility.

The amended article, which still sits on Daily Mail Australia

“Errors like the one made by the Daily Mail Australia journalist are inevitable in an environment which places quantity of content above quality, and does not provide the extra layer of checking that comes from sub-editors,” McInerney said.

“The errors that led to her sacking would have been picked up by sub-editor and never seen the light of day. Good journalism requires editing – it is an integral part of the quality control and ethical obligations that more and more companies are outsourcing or pushing back onto already time-poor journalists.

“The fault in cases where basic editing processes are not implemented or followed lies with management and their failure to have adequate systems in place that provide the necessary checks and balances.”

According to the Daily Telegraph, contestant Florence Alexandra said she was talking to her lawyers about legal action.

Mumbrella has approached Daily Mail Australia for comment.

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