Telegraph ‘misleading and unfair’ in coverage of Bill Shorten’s union commission evidence, rules press watchdog

The Daily Telegraph misled its readers with coverage of the Dyson Heydon commission into union corruption by wrongly using a large image of Bill Shorten in a way that gave the impression the Labor leader had been condemned rather than exonerated by the report, the press watchdog has ruled.

The article – which the Australian Press Council ruled breached its guidelines on accuracy and fairness – was published on the Sydney newspaper’s Saturday Extra section on January 2.

The double page report was illustrated with large images of Heydon and Shorten.

According to today’s APC ruling: “Below this were two quotes, apparently of findings, which were ‘He was almost always unbelievable. He conveyed an impression of being a phony’; and ‘The advantage of blaming a dead man … dead men tell no tales’.”

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