Incomplete document - comments to follow in due
course.
For the public record.
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There is blood on the hands of some journalists in the Murdoch press today, and that stain will not be erased. Little did Paul Whittaker care when he accepted stolen documents from a former disgruntled One Nation media adviser, Debbie Beaven, concerning Charlie's domestic situation. Little did Chris Mitchell, the editor in chief of the Courier- Mail, care when he disregarded not just a Supreme Court injunction but flew in the face of the domestic violence legislation itself that prohibited publication and printing of details of that document. The care factor of the "Murderoch" press is zero.
Let us see how they report this speech if in fact they have the integrity to do so.
This is the same dingo pack that is signatory to a court action concerning the improper publication of a Labor member's name on an Internet site. It seems that politics in the Murdoch press dictates the manner in which a politician is treated. I wonder how their selective conscience will be affected on hearing this little gem. I can even hear a "Hear, hear" from Charlie about that.
About a week after Charlie's death, I was reading the Courier- Mail and came across a couple of articles about suicide, stress and depression. The more I read, the more I realised the impact that mental health disorders are currently having on members of our community. I wondered if the publication of these articles was designed to lighten their consciences just a little.
One Nation leader hits out at paper over reports:
"We are not party to any action against Scott Balson (who allegedly published the MP's name on the Internet)."
Feldman's claims false and irrational:
"In the first place, Mr Balson is being prosecuted by the Crown and no private individual has any part in that prosecution. Secondly, Mr Feldman ignores the fact that The Courier-Mail published the person's name when it was legal to do so - before he was charged with an offence."
"I refer the Premier to a statement on ABC Radio by John Taylor in a program on 28 July about the naming of a Labor backbencher on sex charges. Mr Taylor said that the only people to publicly name the MP since he was charged have been Scott Bolson (sic) and Premier Peter Beattie. I ask: can the Premier advise the House whether this statement is true?"
Extract from Courier-Mail article by David Solomon, "Defamation case backfires" (27/8/99):
Judges and journalists rarely take advantage of defamation laws to try to vindicate their reputations. They are more conscious than most other professionals of the hideous uncertainty of resorting to the courts.
But there are also professional reasons for the abstemious behaviour. Journalists are normally on the receiving end of defamation writs. To become a plaintiff against another journalist seems almost unethical. Journalists are concerned to widen freedom of speech and expression. Only in the most extreme case would a journalist resort to the law.
