Paul Sheehan’s false middle eastern gang rape story in the Sydney Morning Herald was inaccurate, unbalanced and offensive, according to an investigation by the Australian press council.
“The article concerned serious and distressing allegations that would likely cause substantial offence, distress and/or prejudice to the Middle Eastern community in Australia, the NSW police, victims of sexual assault and the wider community,” the council said.
“Accordingly, it was necessary to be especially rigorous in determining the veracity of the claims made by Louise that she had been raped by Arabic-speaking men and of the subsequent police inaction and indifference.”
The veteran Fairfax media columnist, who took a redundancy package two months ago, wrote in February the “horrifying untold story of Louise”, published on the front page of the Herald. He reported “Louise” as saying she had been raped and beaten by a gang of Arabic speaking men, referred to as “Mercs” in the article.
But it soon emerged her claims were untrue and had not been checked with police or any authorities before publication.
“All of these claims would have been readily dismissed with some further interviews and basic fact-checking, but this was not done,” the council said in an adjudication published in the Herald on Monday.
“The council concludes that reasonable steps were not taken to verify or justify the report and that its Standard of Practice relating to accuracy and fairness was clearly breached in this respect.
“The council also concludes that reasonable steps were not taken to avoid substantial offence, distress and prejudice and without sufficient justification in the public interest, especially in reporting Louise’s description of the Arabic-speaking men as “MERCs. Middle Eastern raping c----”.
The newspaper told the council the article breached “fundamental standards of journalistic practice” but that a subsequent article by Sheehan headlined “The story of Louise: police have no case to answer, but I do” redacted the most contentious allegations. On 1 March the entire article was removed from the paper’s website.
Sheehan was suspended and the editor-in-chief of the Herald, Darren Goodsir, apologised to readers in March.
“The Herald’s reputation is founded on the trust our readers give us to provide fair, balanced and independent journalism, and it is critical that the editorial integrity of the Herald is maintained,” he wrote.
The council found the Herald’s apologies and retractions were adequate.
The Herald says it has changed its practices and introduced editorial safeguards to avoid a similar incident happening again.
