Media Name and Shame – Interview with Dr Denis Muller

Interview with Dr Denis Muller by Allan Boyd on RTRFM Thursday 06 August 2020.

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Anyone who follows the news, will know that two young Brisbane women – returning to Queensland from Victoria recently – had allegedly broken coronavirus border restriction laws. It was alleged that they had lied on their border declaration forms to avoid quarantine after a party trip to Melbourne.

The two teenagers have now been named and shamed by Australia’s big media. Last week, the Courier Mail – Brisbane’s only daily newspaper – labelled the women “Enemies of the State” on the front page.

Multiple media outlets – including the ABC, Herald Sun, Sydney Morning Herald, the Age, Brisbane Times, Daily Mail and commercial television outlets – also named the women and published their photographs – which were taken from their social media accounts.

But shouldn’t the right to privacy apply equally to everyone?

To talk about all this is journalism expert Dr Denis Muller – Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Advancing Journalism – University of Melbourne…