Retired WA Senator Brian Greig, has lodged a complaint with the Australian Press Council against three Australian newspapers. The complaint follows the recent media frenzy stirred up by the papers linking a Canadian based website for men, Squirt.org with the recent death of an 8 year old girl in a southern suburb of Perth.
The media articles that followed the horrific murder on the 26th of June of eight year old, Sofia Rodrigez-Urrutia-Shu, saw both The Australian and The West Australian newspapers publish articles claiming that the scene of the crime had been listed as a ‘cruising/beat’ location for gay men on Squirt.org. The articles went on to claim that the listing was later removed by site administrators.
The Melbourne Age, published the same article as The Australian, but only did so on-line. Mr Greig told OUTinPerth that he was motivated to take the claim to the Australian Press Council because he was appalled by the articles claims.
“No one questioned the veracity of the claims or made any attempt to explain a link,” he says. “I can understand people being concerned and disturbed with the website, but that’s not the issue. The issue is, is that these papers claimed there is a link between gay men using beats and the death of this little girl and I was appalled by that.â?Â
Canadian based website for men, Squirt.org, was also outraged by the articles. Squirt’s editors say the Livingston Marketplace toilets, where young Sofia was murdered, was never listed on the site and wrote to The Australian demanding the paper print a retraction.
In their response letter to Squirt, The Australian’s editorial legal counsel Gina McWilliams wrote that the article, “expressly states that police found no connection between your website and the alleged murder.â?Â
‘Further, the article clearly states that Squirt.org is for the reference of gay men: only a reader avid for scandal would equate such consensual sexual activity with paedophilia.”
Jerry Gaudet, Director of Squirt’s connectivity division says McWilliams’ letter prompts the question: If police found no connection to the crime, why did The Australian publish the story in the first place?
“They’re associating our site with the death of a young girl and they’re also associating gay men with this murder,” says Mr Gaudet.
“They’ve somehow linked gay men with murderous paedophilia and that’s completely irresponsible. Even if this listing did exist, what would it matter? What would it have to do with the death of this little girl?”
But it wasn’t just the print press seeking to hit on beats and beat users, it was also the West Australian television media that linked Squirt.org with the young girls death. On the same night the print articles were published, all three commercial TV news broadcasters in Perth lead with the story.
Nightly news viewers were shown roving reports, with journalists driving around to various proposed ‘beat’ toilets across the city, plus they also showed footage of the website.
No doubt being fed by the hype, WA Attorney General Jim McGinty, called for the Livingstone Marketplace toilets to be closed. Add to this that the WA Police Service have stated that Squirt.org has since been added to its Cyber Predator Team’s list of monitored sites, and according to retired Senator Greig, you have the implication that gay men and beat users are the ones to blame for this awful killing.
Mr Greig has yet to hear from the Australian Press Council, a self-regulatory body that encourages media outlets to use press freedom ethically.
‘We will wait and see what they have to say, hopefully their decision will come down on the side of rational and responsible press coverage of issues, and these papers will be forced to apologise.â?Â
Since this article was first written The Australian was forced on October 24 by the Australian Press Council to print a letter from the retired Senator. The letter stated amongst other things that The Australian ‘failed in its journalistic responsibilities and appears to have been conned into printing a malicious anti-gay hoax.â?Â
