ABC apologises for showing graphic live vision

ABC has apologised to the family of Jade Young, a victim in the Bondi Junction Westfield attacks, following graphic vision which went to air.

” On April 13, the night of the tragic stabbing at Bondi Junction in Sydney ABC News channel inadvertently broadcast images of one of the victims – Jade Young – taken at the scene,” ABC said in an apology.

“We acknowledge those images were graphic and inappropriate. ABC News is deeply sorry about that. A decision had been made to either blur images like those, or not broadcast them at all.

“Unfortunately, in this instance that process failed and the videos were shown before they were blurred. It was an error of judgement for which we take full responsibility.

“The ABC apologises to Jade’s family and to anyone else who was distressed by the images.”

Writing in The Sydney Morning Herald, Elizabeth Young, said it was “shameful” how her family found out about her daughter’s death.

“Members of my family recognised Jade and her husband Noel in uncensored vision being played on a mainstream TV news feed, with vision of Jade lying on the ground at the shopping centre, receiving CPR,” she wrote.

“The vision, shared on social media and picked up — and used by — multiple news media programs shared my daughter’s final moments with millions. Finding out that a loved one has been murdered is a horror that I do not wish on anyone. But seeing the vision of their last moments and knowing it has been broadcast to millions of people is an appalling breach of privacy and an insult to human dignity.”

The apology comes as Media Watch slammed ABC’s live coverage in an editorial this week, claiming it was severely under-resourced to deliver adequate live coverage.

On the morning after the attacks Sunrise also named the wrong man responsible for the killings, later apologising and settling a defamation threat out of court.