★★★★★ 0/5

NSW Corrective Services to lodge complaint over Seven story

Seven News story on a parolee draws the attention of NSW Parole Authority and Corrective Services.

3
Leave a comment

NSW Parole Authority and Corrective Services will lodge a complaint to media watchdog the Australian Communications and Media Authority following a story on a parolee living in Sydney.

In June Seven News reported on convicted baby killer Martin Saunders now living in Sydney’s south-west.

in 2019 he confessed to shaking his 10-week-old son, pleaded guilty to manslaughter and was sentenced to a minimum of three years in jail.

Media Watch last night reported he was released on parole in December 2022, with the NSW Parole Authority and Corrective Services telling ABC he was not considered a threat to community.

The mother of the child Rochelle Kennedy, also spoke to Seven a third time describing him as “a monster.”

But ABC said their report on Saunders was media playing judge and jury and encouraging a lynch mob.

A Seven spokesperson told ABC, “As you have noted the 7News story stated that some residents are terrified. This assessment was based on interviews conducted by Evan Barton who interviewed residents in the community. Vox pops were done to validate these sentiments.

“While not all of these interviews may have been included in the final cut of the story they informed our understanding of the situation. Our reporting does not suggest that Martin Saunders is currently a danger to the public but rather covers the concerns primarily from those living in the community as well as the mother of the child.”

It isn’t clear if NSW Corrective Services have complained to Seven over the story, which is required procedure before an ACMA complaint.

3 Responses

  1. The judge sentencing him to only three years jail for shaking a baby to death should have been the story rather than hounding him and questioning his neighbours.

  2. I am sure 7 will be quaking in their boots about being reported to ACMA.

    7 will continue to do this because it rates and we, the general public, are gullible enough to believe what is supposed to be “news”. I would put myself in that category, because unless you are an experienced journalist without access to all the sources that MW called upon last night, then you would think WTH is going on here.

    We are sleepwalking into this whole “what is truth” world and one day, no one will have any faith in what they are being told. What sort of world will that be?

    It won’t happen, but maybe it is about time the “journalist” who perpetrate this garbage get some of their own medicine and get ambushed in the street on their off-time and asked questioned about their practices and not be so truthful in how the story is represented. Of course that won’t happen because all the other channels will be scared of it happening also to their “reporters”.

Leave a Reply