Sunrise apologises for ‘virgin auction’ interview

Weekend Sunrise executive producer Adam Boland has apologised for a segment yesterday when filmmaker spoke about his documentary featuring a young man and woman are ‘auctioning their virginity’ online.

Brazilian woman Catarina, 20 and Alexander, 23, a Russian-born man living in Sydney, are part of the website Virgins Wanted, attracting bids of $255,000 and $1300 respectively.

The concept has attracted global media attention.

Yesterday Alexander did not appear in the segment, leaving it to Catarina and filmmaker Justin Sisely to defend the project.

On the Sunrise Facebook page Adam Boland told viewers:

“I want to apologise for the story we ran this morning on the virgin auction. The presenters hated it and I hated it.

“In recent months, the guests have received media attention around the world and started a genuine debate about the obvious moral and legal issues. Regrettably, I don’t believe our segment properly reflected that debate. It was simply awkward viewing.

“You deserve better from Weekend Sunrise. And frankly, we should deliver. We got it wrong this morning. Full stop. And for that, I apologise.”

Andrew O’Keefe wrote that the segment had intended to debate the ethics of the project.

“Unfortunately that debate didn’t happen, partly because one of our guests didn’t show up, and so the segment may have seemed like an endorsement of the project. That wasn’t our intention, and Sam and I would have really liked to have taken it up to our guests,” he wrote.

“However, due to the fact that the woman at the centre of the story was young, didn’t speak English, and was possibly in way over her head, and had been invited by us to the studio, we felt that we couldn’t do anything to humiliate her before a huge audience (particularly as she may well come to be humiliated before a much larger audience soon). We thought we’d let the story speak for itself instead. Obviously it did, and in a way that offended many of you.

“We apologise.”

So far the Facebook page has attracted 700 responses.