The Press Council considered whether its Standards of Practice were breached by a homepage item published by news.com.au on 15 November 2023 headed “DARK ISLAMIC THREAT: Terrifying one-word warning after store bomb”. The homepage item included a sub-headline “The Palestinian-Australian owner of a popular Melbourne burger joint that was firebombed has revealed the drastic move he made after receiving a death threat”. The homepage item included a CCTV image of the firebombing, an image of the firebombed store and an image of the store owner. The homepage item linked to an article headed "Owner of Melbourne’s Burgertory chain reveals family living in ‘safe house’ after store firebombed, death threats”.
In response to complaints received, the Press Council asked the publication to comment on whether the article complied with the Council’s Standards of Practice that require reasonable steps to be taken to ensure that factual material in news 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 complaints expressed concern that the headline implies that Islam is making a dark threat.
In response, the publication said that the use of the words “Islamic threat” were clumsy. The publication said it has shared the Council’s guidelines on the use of ‘Religious terms in headlines’ to ensure its homepage editors are better educated when reporting on future stories. The publication also said that the article which the homepage item linked to, had a different headline and that once the article moved of the homepage, the headline was no longer visible to any readers.
Conclusion
The Council notes that prominent references to religious or ethnic groups in headlines can imply that a group, as a whole, is responsible for the actions of a minority among that group. Accordingly, in reporting on instances of violence purportedly conducted in the name of religion, publications must take reasonable steps to identify the particular sources of violence as clearly as possible. Although the Council acknowledges that the homepage item linked to an article that had a different headline, it considers that the prominent reference to Islam in headline along with the words “DARK” and “THREAT” unfairly suggests that the religion of Islam as a whole is responsible for the threat and the associated firebombing. The Council notes that in not making it sufficiently clear that the purported ‘Islamic threat’ referred to a comment made on social media, the publication did not take reasonable steps to ensure factual material was presented with reasonable fairness and balance. Accordingly, the Council finds the article breached General Principle 3.
Given that it was not made sufficiently clear that the religion of Islam as a whole was not responsible for the purported ‘Islamic threat’, the Council considers that the publication did not take reasonable steps to avoid contributing to substantial prejudice which was not justified by the public interest. Accordingly, the Council concluded that the publication breached General Principle 6.
The Council welcomes the publication’s comments that it has taken steps to educate its editors on the use of religious terms in headlines.
Relevant Council Standards
This Adjudication applies the following General Principles of the Council.
Publications must take reasonable steps to:
- Ensure that factual material is presented with reasonable fairness and balance, and that writers’ expressions of opinion are not based on significantly inaccurate factual material or omission of key facts.
- 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.