The Sunday Telegraph issues apology to musician Daniel Johns for brothel reporting
The Sunday Telegraph has admitted it was wrong in its reporting that musician Daniel Johns was ‘swaggering’ out of The Kastle brothel in Sydney, printing an apology to the Silverchair frontman.
The apology follows an article published by the title on August 11, 2019 and a defamation case lodged by the musician in November 2019.
Oh my! This is quite the apology from the @dailytelegraph to Daniel Johns. I wonder how much this cost News Corp? https://t.co/wYnvrUCodm
— Michael Rowland (@mjrowland68) May 2, 2020
The story in question reported Johns had been seen exiting infamous Sydney brothel The Kastle, with a photo of him allegedly leaving the venue. In the apology piece, The Sunday Telegraph concedes that Johns has never been to The Kastle and was instead in the area visiting a friend who lived nearby.
“We retract the story and we wish to extend a genuine and public apology to Mr Johns and his family for the error and the harm caused,” read the apology.
Johns, who first announced the defamation proceedings on his Facebook page, posted the apology to the social media platform with the comment: “Now back to the music”.
In a public statement in November 2019, Johns said he had initially requested the publication issue an apology and a retraction, but that neither has been provided. He called the article ‘hurtful, humiliating and damaging’ to both himself and his family.
It isn’t yet clear if the apology is a result of a win by Johns and whether he received a payout from Nationwide News, the publisher of The Sunday Telegraph.
Of course he got a settlement. Apologies are very rarely that prominent. He clearly had the power to ask for what he wanted.
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Imagine going to university for 3-4 years to get a journalism degree with aspirations of winning a Walkley and then ending up at this rag churning out misinformation that costs your employer millions of dollars. Sad!
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