The Press Council considered whether its Standards of Practice were breached by a video published by The Daily Telegraph on its social media platforms on 12 November 2023. The video was titled “Terrifying CCTV footage has emerged of the moment a Melbourne burger store exploded in flames that sparked pro-Palestinian protests exploded in flames”.
The video showed CCTV footage of what has been reported to be a firebombing of a Melbourne burger store. Along with CCTV material, the video also included footage taken by an individual from the community showing the fire’s aftermath which included the individual’s commentary and associated captions on the fire.
In response to a complaint, the Council asked the publication to comment on whether the material complied with the Council’s Standards of Practice, which require publications to take reasonable steps to avoid causing or contributing materially to substantial offence, distress or prejudice or a substantial risk to health and safety without sufficient public interest justification (General Principle 6). The Council noted that the complaint raised concerns that the published material may be described as hate speech.
In response, the publication said that the publishing of the video on its social media platforms was a mistake caused by a breakdown in its system, which resulted in the wrong video being published temporarily. The publication said that when the mistake was realised, the video was removed from both social media platforms. The publication said that it has since put in place new safeguards to ensure such a mistake is not repeated.
Conclusion
The Council accepts the publication’s comments that the publication of the video was not intentional and notes the steps it says it has taken to prevent further mistakes, such as this, from reoccurring. However, the Council notes that despite being informed of the significant concerns with the video content soon after its publication, it remained online for a number of weeks before it was eventually removed.
The Council considers that given the video’s inflammatory language, the publication failed to take reasonable steps to avoid causing or contributing to substantial offence, distress or prejudice, or a substantial risk to health or safety and that there was insufficient public interest justifying it doing so. Accordingly, the Council concludes that the publication breached General Principle 6.
Given the offensive, distressing or prejudicial nature of the comments made by the individual in the video, the Council has chosen not to republish those words.
Relevant Council Standards
Publications must take reasonable steps 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.