Press Council censured Herald Sun over AFL agent court case article
The Australian Press Council has censured News Corp’s Herald Sun over its article ‘Strategic Error Will Cost Agent’ for failing to take reasonable steps to ensure it was accurate and not misleading.
The article, published on the 8th of June 2016, referred to a judgement of the Supreme Court of Victoria relating to the departure of Liam Pickering, an accredited agent for AFL players, from Strategic Management Australia to depart a new firm.
It implied Pickering had “suffered a significant defeat” and did not reflect the Court’s conclusion that “both parties have won and lost”.
The Council also ruled the article was not reasonably fair or balanced in its treatment of the subject matter and failed to amend the inaccuracies reported while also not giving Pickering a fair amount of time to respond to the article.
The Herald Sun did offer to publish a letter from Pickering however it was the Press Council’s view the publication did not offer a fair amount of time for a reply.
The Press Council did reject a complaint suggesting the Herald Sun had failed to avoid or disclose a conflict of interest stating there was “insufficient evidence”.
Abigail Dawson was Mumbrella's senior content journalist covering event content. She left Mumbrella to move into an agency role in 2020.
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