An article in Woman's Day billed as an interview with Rachel Hunter has been found to be misleading by the Press Council.
An article in Woman's Day billed as an interview with Rachel Hunter has been found to be misleading by the Press Council.
The Press Council has upheld a complaint that a Woman's Day article about Rachel Hunter misled readers into thinking the magazine had spoken to her.
The article, headlined Reinventing Rachel: My secrets to staying in shape, featured in the magazine's October 5 issue. The issue also featured the headline, Rachelreveals all - How I got my body back.
Dr Grant Hannis, an associate professor of marketing and journalism at Massey University, complained the magazine's cover and article gave readers the impression the publication had interviewed Hunter, when it had not.
He said the article breached standards of accuracy, fairness and balance. He also pointed out that information published by Fairfax Media stated Hunter had not been interviewed by Woman's Day, and that the magazine should have run an apology or correction when parts of the article were disproven by Hunter's comments to other media.
Woman's Day editor Sido Kitchin said the article had not breached standards, and was unaware quotes were outdated when it bought the article from an agency. She said the magazine did not claim the story was exclusive or an official interview and readers were attuned to the fact that Woman's Day articles were often "speculative and conditional".
The Press Council said a reasonable reader would believe Woman's Day had interviewed Hunter, when in fact the material was likely pieced together from other sources, including previously published interviews.
In the past, the council has been more lenient with women's magazines because of the genre's style. But in this instance most of its members decided the article went too far.
