The Australian Press Council has ruled that The Australian newspaper failed to meet journalistic standards when they reported on a mass shooting in Nashville earlier this year.
In it’s ruling published earlier this week the industry watchdog said the newspaper had put too much emphasis on the alleged shooter’s gender identity.
The article was published at the The Australian online on 28 March 2023 and was titled “Trans female kills 3 children, 3 staff at Nashville Covenant School” on the newspaper’s homepage. The title of the article that in linked to was “Trans woman kills 3 children, 3 staff at US school”.
The news report said that “The attack on a Nashville primary school that left three children and three staff members dead was meticulously planned by the female suspect, according to local police. The transgender attacker, identified by police as Audrey Hale, 28, left a manifesto and a map in her home before heading to the private Covenant School to carry out the mass shooting”.The article reported that “Police chief Don Drake told reporters that police searched the home of the suspect, who was killed by police at the school, and found evidence of a targeted attack.” It also included an embedded video from a television interview recording the Police Chief saying, “she does identify as transgender”. In response to a complaint, the Council asked the publication to comment on whether the article complied with the Council’s Standards of Practice, which require publications to take reasonable steps to ensure that factual material is presented with reasonable fairness and balance (General Principle 3); and to avoid causing or contributing materially to substantial offence, distress or prejudice, or a substantial risk to health or safety, unless doing so is sufficiently in the public interest (General Principle 6).
In relation to this the complaint expressed concern that the prominent and repeated references to the accused’s transgender status, were unfair and were not justified by the public interest as the transgender status of Hale is not reported to have been a contributing factor in the shooting.
The Press Council recognised that later updates to the reporting removed the number of references to Hale’s transgender status. Nonetheless, the Council said it does not consider that the initial prominent and repeated references to Hale’s transgender status were warranted.
The council noted that apart from the Police Chief confirming Hale was transgender and noting that the police would consider whether this was a contributing factor, there was no further information to justify the prominent and repeated references.
In their ruling the council said that in the absence of a clearer link between the crime and Hale’s transgender status, particularly in a breaking news story, such references were unfair. Accordingly, the Council considers the publication failed to take reasonable steps to ensure factual material was presented with reasonable fairness and balance in breach of General Principle 3.The council also highlighted that their long-standing position is that publications should exercise great care to not place unwarranted emphasis on characteristics of individuals such as race, ethnicity, religion, nationality, country of origin, gender, sexual orientation, marital status, disability, illness or age.
They said that although they recognised that the Police Chief made a reference to Hale’s transgender status, it did not consider that this alone was sufficient to justify such prominent and repeated references to this characteristic.The Council said the prominence given to the accused’s transgender status, could lead some readers to conclude that this characteristic was either a cause of, or a significant factor in, the mass shooting, and could contribute to substantial prejudice against transgender people.
They said that in the absence of a clearer link between Hale’s transgender status and the mass shooting, The Australian failed to take reasonable steps to avoid contributing to substantial prejudice and that there was insufficient public interest justifying it doing so. Accordingly, the Council concludes that the publication breached General Principle 6.
Read the full judgement at their site.
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