‘Terrorist’ slur leads to watchdog ruling against rival networks
An incident which saw a Nine cameraman sacked after calling a man a terrorist has resulted in Seven and Ten being found to have breached the commercial TV code of practice in how they represented the confrontation.
The incident took place last year after a court hearing. The man became involved in a row with cameraman Simon Fuller after his son had appeared in court.
Afterwards Seven and Ten aired part of the incident in their coverage of the court case without showing that the man was provoked by the “terrorist” comment. Media Watch later aired the full footage showing Fuller’s behaviour..
Simon Fuller
Fuller was suspended by Nine and later left the organisation. He now lists himself on LinkedIn as a video content producer for Melbourne’s Blackmagic Design.
According to the Australian Communications and Media Authority: “In both cases, the ACMA found that this omission of contextual material resulted in: factual material not being presented accurately; news not being presented fairly.”
Nine was not covered by the ruling because it did not air the confrontation.
The watchdog also ruled: “Seven and Ten did not breach provisions of the code relating to the fair representation of viewpoints, portrayal in a negative light by placing gratuitous emphasis on religion, and provocation of dislike or contempt on the grounds of religion, race or ethnic origin. “
Tim Burrowes founded Mumbrella in 2008. He worked on Mumbrella until 2021. At various points he was editor, content director and editor-at-large.
Linkedin
This is disgusting and confirms why i will never watch commercial news
User ID not verified.
Very sad
User ID not verified.
It’s ridiculous that commercial news behaves like this. They should be forced to make an apology on their nightly news as most people won’t have seen Media Watch.
User ID not verified.
Wow, that is a disgrace. All he wanted to do was look after his son and gets harassed like that. It is disgusting.
User ID not verified.
Disgusting. Both Channels 9 & 7 should be charged with racial vilification. What a cheap way to create news when what they are really doing is creating hatred. How can we ever ask Muslims or any other racial or ethnic group (and I include Europeans) to be Australian when perceived “Australians” like this cameraman (and let’s not forget he was accompanied by the interviewer) use divisive taunts guaranteed to elicit an angry reaction.
User ID not verified.
What a disgrace….. it’s shallow-minded, idiotic Neanderthals like Mr Fuller that fuel the racial divide in this country. I’m surprised someone with his obvious lack of intellect can even work a camera. Worse are the TV networks that tolerate and even encourage such behaviour in order to extract ‘compelling’ footage…… shame on you!!! And good on Mediawatch for naming and shaming.
User ID not verified.
For the media it boils down to “giving the people what they want” vs “giving them the truth.” Various outlets are notorious for overblowing non-events to incite Nationalism, and the average punter swallows it hook, line and sinker.
The only media people worth listening to are Clarke and Dawe.
Was anyone else hugely impressed with the Son’s tirade? Expletives aside, I thought he articulated his anger perfectly and showed the cameraman the meaning of “self-decency.”
User ID not verified.
This is disgusting yet not suprising of the commercial channels I bet they flogged that footage hard on aca/tt .
Although I highly doubt anyone that watches commercial “news” watches mediawatch so they should be forced to make an highly publicised apology.
“you can’t even have a beard in this country”‘haha
User ID not verified.
the way he behaved was shameful, but i think the cameraman has been punished enough – he lost his job and was seen on national TV as being a bit of a dickhead.
it looks like he said something intended to hurt the defendant’s and his dad’s feelings after getting angry by Mr Amr apparently pushing him.
Most of us have said things we regret in the heat of the moment – forgive and forget. The cameraperson though should have the decency to apologise to Mr Amr and his son.
User ID not verified.
What’s this about not being allowed to have a beard in this country?!?!?!
User ID not verified.
He did apologise to the Man in question, straight after the incident, on the day.
Oh the networks didn’t show that did they????
User ID not verified.
Well then if he’s apologised, he’s been punished enough.
The internet never forgets tho and everyone has a camera these days, so we all gotta watch out…
User ID not verified.
Interesting difference in approach to the ACMA proceedings: Ten basically copped to it and fessed up while Seven fought tooth and nail with some extremely unimpressive arguments.
Makes you think Ten are less likely to be a repeat offender.
User ID not verified.
suck shit ya racist ozzy network
User ID not verified.
@get off his case
even if the cameraman did apologise after, that still doesn’t excuse the networks showing that poor man all fired up out of context
User ID not verified.