The Media Council has partially upheld a complaint about an NZ Herald article on foul play at a national schoolboy rugby competition.
Melanie Riwai-Couch complained against the New Zealand Herald and other media about stories about an incident at a schools rugby championship match.
The Media Council did not uphold complaints about accuracy, fairness and balance or about privacy, but upheld the complaint under Principle 3, which requires the media to demonstrate an exceptional degree of public interest before it may override the interests of a child or young person.
A red card was issued to a player for stomping on an opposing player's head and for punching after the whistle had blown. A video of the incident with some comment was published on the NZ Herald Facebook page. The 16-year-old player was easily identifiable. A rugby judiciary hearing some weeks later found there had been no head stomping.
There were online comments on the Facebook posting, some supporting the player but many highly critical of him and some very hurtful. The NZ Herald removed the story shortly afterwards
The Media Council found it clear that the young person was suffering, and could reasonably be expected to suffer from the media reports and comments on them. It also found a public interest in reporting and condemning violence in sport, especially in rugby, and especially among young players.
It may not always be in the interests of a young person approaching adulthood to be protected against the ordinary consequences of his or her actions, but he or she should be protected against disproportionate consequences.
The reporting of the incident was factual, it was not sensational and it did not demonise the player. It was in the public interest. However the same cannot be said of the comments that were posted on the Facebook page. The nature of online social media comments is now well known and the NZ Herald must have been aware that it was exposing a young person, who was already uncomfortably facing the consequences of his actions, to the likelihood of disproportionate abuse and vilification.
The Media Council recognises the reasonably prompt action taken by the NZ Herald to take down its Facebook post, but it upholds the complaint against it under Principle 3. The story should never have been posted on Facebook in the first place, and the majority of comments were made within a short time of the first posting.
* The full Media Council decision can be viewed here