2GB Ray Hadley Show segment “Deputy Premier Andrew Stoner & Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione on Occupy Participant found Not Guilty by Court.”
( http://podcasts.mrn.com.au.s3.amazonaws.com/rayhadley/20120518-occupy2.mp3 )In relation to the above mentioned case, Occupy Sydney wishes to highlight a grave misrepresentation of Facts by The Ray Hadley Show and the featured participants on a mainstream Radio Station with considerable influence in some community demographics.
- Last Friday Ray Hadley featured a story based on the Thursday Court appearance of Lance Priestley, an occupy Sydney participant. Lance was found not guilty of “staying overnight” x 2 charges and “intimidate police” x 1 charge, with all charges arising from his participation in the Occupy Sydney movement.
- The case involved an evidential hearing with multiple Police witnesses and the defendant choosing to give evidence alone for the defence. The Judge ruled in favour of the defendant as much on the basis of the evidence submitted by police as that submitted by the defendant.
- The Ray Hadley Show host Mr Hadley and his guests Messrs Scipione and Stoner relied on the Police “Fact Sheets” (a summary document outlining the brief case put by police. The Fact sheet does not contain even the full Police Evidence offered, let alone the defence arguments. A full transcript of the evidential hearing presenting the full body of evidence upon which the case was decided is available from The Downing Centre Court Registrar.
- The Ray Hadley Show made no attempt to give balance to what was in effect a skewed advertorial for the Politically motivated desires of the Assistant Premier and the operational playing field sought by the Police Commissioner. Requests for a right of reply by Occupy Sydney and the defendant directly to the show producer have been ignored.
- The Assistant Premier’s comments, made without reference to the full facts, draw attention to the need to continue to maintain separation between the Judicial Policing and Political aspects of Government . One might take the view that the Deputy Premier and Police Commissioner seek in making their public statements to in some way influence future Judicial interpretations of law. If this is the case it amounts to an attempt to pervert the course of justice or a contempt of court rather than enhancement of the law.
- The Assistant Commissioners Statements taken in their entirety amount to an unwarranted and expedient partisan attack on the character, ability, and impartiality of the magistrate who heard the case. As with Occupy Sydney, the defendant, and her honour or appropriate representatives have not been given the opportunity to reply.
Media contacts:
Vicki Smart 0447 842 547 / Defendant in above case contactable on 0410 722 000
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4 Responses to “Media Release – for Immediate distribution: 2GB reject right of reply from Occupy Sydney”
on May 23rd, 2012 at 3:08 pm #
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I suggest you forward this to the Australian Communications and Media Authority
http://www.acma.gov.au/WEB/STANDARD/pc=CONTACT_COMPLAINTS_OVIEW#radio
“Radio complaints
If you have heard something on the radio that you think breaches a code, the first thing to do is to make a complaint in writing directly to the station you heard it on.
If you have already made a complaint to the station and have either not had a response within 60 days, or aren’t satisfied with their response, you can make a complaint to the ACMA.
The ACMA cannot accept complaints about the quality of programs or the accuracy of advertisements.
If you have heard something on radio that you think breaches a licence condition or standard you can make a complaint to the ACMA.
Not sure where to address your complaint? Find out more
The ACMA broadcasting complaints form can be downloaded here in PDF (57 kb) or Word (344 kb) formats.”
Commercial Radio Australia Code of Practice [excerpts]
2.2 In the preparation and presentation of current affairs programs, a licensee must use reasonable efforts to ensure that:
(a) factual material is reasonably supportable as being accurate; and
(b) substantial errors of fact are corrected at the earliest possible opportunity.
2.3 In the preparation and presentation of current affairs programs a licensee must ensure that:
(b) reasonable efforts are made or reasonable opportunities are given to present significant viewpoints when dealing with controversial issues of public importance, either within the same program or similar programs, while the issue has immediate relevance to the community;
(c) viewpoints expressed to the licensee for broadcast are not misrepresented and material is not presented in a misleading manner by giving wrong or improper emphasis or by editing out of context
I,m one of thousands of people who pass you in martin place-and think what are you doin? and i,m a convert in a big way- i,m in retail and have seen it all BUT in the last 5yrs the balance has changed–we have NO manufactering base,minimium aussie business,s owned by australians so where is it all ,and WHO allows these jobs loses -so great, but hiden in the detail of political jargon.retail workers are dwindling-exploited and very much underpaid .westfarmers are a group of companies in retail that have caused most of these casualties and i say NO-MORE!