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AFL boss: media organisations “disgraceful” in exploiting 13 year old girl

Andrew Demetriou slams media for relentlessly pursuing a 13-year-old girl and exposing her identity.

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2013-05-26_1239AFL boss Andrew Demetriou said hit out at media organisations for pursuing the family of the 13 year old girl at the centre of racial comments directed at Adam Goodes during Friday’s Indigenous round.

Demetriou said he was proud of how the league, club and Goodes had handled the situation but claimed some media outlets had exploited the girl.

“To pursue relentlessly a 13-year-old girl, a minor, to go after her, to seek her comments, speak to her family, expose her, has been really disappointing,” he said.

“Sometimes you can cross the line … in this case there’s been very little regard for her age.”

TEN confirmed to TV Tonight that the mother had not requested the girl’s identity be concealed during an interview. Pooled footage also aired on Nine News without pixellation.

But Seven News says the mother requested her identity not be revealed, and ran pixellated footage, along with the ABC.

The Herald Sun also ran a photo without pixellation. She has also been named by some media.

“Some of the behaviour’s been disgraceful and you do have to draw a line when you’re talking about minors,” said Demetriou.

Yesterday TV Tonight questioned whether media should do more to protect children when interviewing parents who may not be media-savvy.

Meanwhile the AFL boss also took aim at Tom Waterhouse and the Nine Network for their promotion of live betting odds during broadcasts.

“We’re all paying the price of an outrageous advertising campaign by one individual whose got in people’s faces and they are absolutely entitled to be outraged by that,” he said.

“I think one network didn’t cover themselves in glory either in the way they’ve promoted live gambling.

“We support the changes. We’ll act responsibly and I think they go far enough.”

Source: AAP, SBS

10 Responses

  2. Actually, some of us would like to sit back and watch the football, while knowing that the many Indigenous players in the league, past/present/future, are being encouraged and appreciated by the fans and their employers; something that Australia has, if looking at time in a long glance, only just started doing itself.

    Maybe the Indigenous Round and the Winmar photo need to be employed by the AFL a bit more often to actually educate those who still struggle to identify, as well as pointing out that the apes in this society are not people of different coloured skin, but are the ones who are not accepting of people standing up for their right to live in their own skin, no matter the colour or heritage.

  3. The AFL brought this on themselves by promoting an Indigenous round and the overuse of that Nicky Winmar photo. By succumbing to political correctness the AFL has ruined this girl’s life. Let’s hope we see no more sanctimonious talk about “racism” and are allowed to just sit back and enjoy the footy.

  6. And Demetriou is a disgrace for allowing a drug policy that lets players self report and keep it quiet, and have three strikes.

    No other sport in the world does that.

    Glass houses Andrew…

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