0/5

ACMA slaps A Current Affair over hidden cam “false report”

Nine found in breach of Code when a producer posed as a patient to get medical certificates from doctors.

2013-10-14_2353The media watchdog has slapped Nine’s A Current Affair for a story using hidden cameras when a producer posed as a patient in order to get medical certificates from doctors.

Two October 2013 broadcasts, which were heavily criticised by Media Watch last year, were found by the Australian Communications and Media Authority to have breached factual accuracy and privacy clauses of the Code of Practice.

The first report included footage of five doctor consultations using a hidden camera, while the second presented extended footage of two of the consultations following complaints from 2 of 5 doctors.

While the second report established that the first was inaccurate, both segments contained inaccurate factual assertions that the two doctors had issued medical certificates for non-bona fide reasons. ACMA found both doctors had actually investigated what they believed to be real medical symptoms and explored treatment before issuing the certificates.

One of the doctors was also identifiable in the broadcast causing the footage to be deemed an invasion of privacy.

Last October Queensland Doctor Carroll told Media Watch the “patient” was hunched over and cowering and he thought he may have been bullied by his boss.

“I personally have attended to a number of Suicide cases……Men in their thirties … and then having to explain this to their wife and 4 and 6 yr old … it’s hard !!!!!! Often a male this age is dragged in by their girlfriend who is really concerned about them and we only see the tip of the iceberg so any male stressed and bullied I take very seriously,” he told ABC.

ACMA Chairman, Chris Chapman, said, “There was no public interest justification in the program’s surreptitious filming of medical consultations, its inaccurate descriptions of those consultations and its editing of the footage to achieve a false effect.”

Following the ACMA ruling Nine agreed to:

remove the relevant segments from the program website,
include on the program website a summary of, and a link to, the ACMA’s final report
include the matter in training materials for staff.

But it did not agree to broadcast the findings, as recommended by ACMA.

ACMA cannot ‘fine’ or ‘prosecute’ a broadcaster for breaching a code, or direct it to do any particular thing , including broadcast a report of their findings.

4 Responses

  1. Yeah … umm … it’s not easy to talk about, but it’s not exaggerating to say that after a similar situation (stress, not bullying) I owe my still being here to a doctor who accepted a walk-in patient they’d never seen before, listened to their story, and gave them a 2-day med cert and a mild sedative.

    Doctors always have to take a chance that patients are telling the truth, and I dont have enough 4-letter words in my vocabulary to describe anyone who makes that harder for them.

    (Seriously, folks – stress & bullying can creep up & screws you in ways you won’t understand until it’s gone. Help is out there – so take it if you need it, and don’t worry what others may think.

  2. It’s an interesting juxtaposition of timing. Here we have an ACMA finding against a sleazy program on the Nine network where at least one of the “investigated” doctors was concerned that O’Brien may have been bullied at work, while last night on the same network, we had Big Brother serving up thinly-disguised bullying as entertainment.

Leave a Reply