Press watchdog rules Perth Sunday Times tanning salon investigation was ‘misleading’
News Corp’s Perth paper the Sunday Times has breached Press Council standards for misleading readers around an assertion that tanning operators snubbed or flouted safety laws after a reporter failed to fill out tanning application forms truthfully.
The APC found the Perth paper and its digital counterpart Perth Now did not take the reasonable care required to ensure factual material was accurate and presented with reasonable fairness.
The article detailed a reporter’s claims she was able to making a tanning appointment at three solariums despite having ‘Type 1’ fair skin. According to law, people with ‘Type 1’ skin are banned from using tanning beds.
It was the council’s view the article did not “adequately explain the way in which the reporter’s skin type analysis was arrived at”.
