Investigation Report 2958
File No. / ACMA 2013/144Broadcaster / Channel Seven Melbourne Pty Ltd
Station / HSV Melbourne
Type of service / Commercial television broadcasting service
Name of program / Weekend Sunrise
Date of program / 27 October 2012
Relevant Code / Clause 4.3.1 of the Commercial Television Industry Code of Practice 2010
Date Finalised / 21 June 2013
Outcome / No breach of clause 4.3.1 of the Commercial Television Industry Code of Practice 2010
The complaint
The Australian Communications and Media Authority (the ACMA) received a complaint on 17January 2014 concerning a segment of Weekend Sunrise, broadcast by Channel Seven Melbourne Pty Ltd, the licensee of HSV Melbourne (the Licensee).
The complainant submitted that the segment was factually inaccurate. He was not satisfied with the response provided by the Licensee and complained to the ACMA.[1]
The ACMA has considered the Licensee’s compliance with clause 4.3.1 (accuracy of factual material) of the Commercial Television Industry Code of Practice 2010 (the Code).
Matters not pursued
In his complaint to the ACMA, the complainant cited clauses 1.9.1 (simulation of news to mislead/alarm) and 4.3.2 (creating public panic) of the Code, in addition to clause 4.3.1 of the Code. In his initial complaint to the Licensee, however, the complainant did not raise these additional issues. As such, the ACMA does not have jurisdiction to investigate these matters and will not address them in this investigation.
The program
Weekend Sunrise (the Program) is a breakfast current affairs program broadcast on Saturdays and Sundays from 7:00am to 10:00am. The Program regularly discusses current affairs issues, and includes news breaks every half hour, interviews and celebrity gossip.
On 27 October 2012, the Program included a brief, 50-second discussion (the Segment) between four of the presenters during which the main presenter of the Program (the Presenter) showed a photograph of a polar bear standing on an ice sheet in the Arctic (the Photo) that had featured in the Sydney newspaper The Daily Telegraph (the Article) that day.
The Segment was introduced with the Presenter stating:
Presenter 1 - Hey, look at this great photo we ahh... we got out of The Daily Telegraph today...
Presenter 2 – What a ripper.
The following image of the Photo then featured:
Upon the Photo appearing on screen, the Presenter stated:
Intended of course to demonstrate the effects of climate change in the Arctic. Now, unbelievably, that has never really happened before in that part of the Arctic; that the ice sheet has broken up so considerably. And this is one of the ahh... the results of that... the bears getting stranded.
A brief exchange of commentary ensued among the presenters touching on how powerful the image was, and querying how the photo would have been taken:
Presenter 3 – Mmmm.
Presenter 1 - The ahhh... the bears getting stranded.
Presenter 4 – How did they take that photo?
Presenter 2 – That is a powerful image.
Presenter 3 – And there’s some proof! People always ask for proof.
Presenter 4 – Did they take that from an aeroplane?
Presenter 1 – Did they take it from an aeroplane?
Presenter 4 – Yeah.
Presenter 1 – Ah... I don’t know! I assume so...
Presenter 3 – I think Santa might have taken it from his sleigh.
Presenter 1- Yeah... They might have stuck it to a giraffe’s head, I don’t know.
(Laughter)
Presenter 1 – I assume it’s an aeroplane (laughing). Thank you [presenter’s name].
Presenter 4 – I just like to know these things.
Presenter – News, sport and weather follows the break...
The text of the Article referred to in the Segment is at Appendix A.
Assessment
The ACMA’s assessment is based on a letter of complaint from the complainant to the Licensee, the Licensee’s response to the complaint and a further complaint to the ACMA. Other sources used have been identified where relevant.
In assessing content against the Code, the ACMA considers the meaning conveyed by the relevant material. This is assessed according to the understanding of an ‘ordinary, reasonable’ viewer.
Australian courts have considered an ‘ordinary, reasonable’ viewer to be:
A person of fair average intelligence, who is neither perverse, nor morbid or suspicious of mind, nor avid for scandal. That person does not live in an ivory tower, but can and does read between the lines in the light of that person’s general knowledge and experience of worldly affairs[2].
In considering compliance with the Code, the ACMA considers the natural, ordinary meaning of the language, context, tenor, tone, and any inferences that may be drawn. In assessing the accuracy of factual material which is presented, the ACMA will also consider relevant omissions (if any).
Once this test has been applied to ascertain the meaning of the material broadcast, it is for the ACMA to determine whether the contents of the Segment have breached the Code.
Relevant Code Clause
News and Current Affairs Programs
4.3 In broadcasting news and current affairs programs, licensees:
4.3.1 must present factual material accurately and represent viewpoints fairly, having regard to the circumstances at the time of preparing and broadcasting the program;
4.3.1.1 An assessment of whether the factual material is accurate is to be determined in the context of the segment in its entirety.
The considerations which the ACMA generally applies in assessing whether particular broadcast material is factual in character are set out at Appendix B.
Complainant Submissions
The complainant submitted the following to the Licensee:
On Weekend Sunrise Saturday 27/10/12, [the Presenter] held up a picture of a polar bear sitting on a piece of ice surrounded by other pieces of floating ice and made the following claims
1) It was proof of climate change
2) The ice melt had never happened before
3) The polar bear was stranded.
A quick check of relevant facts shows that:
1) Climate has been changing for over 4 billion years so this incident by itself could not be considered as proof
2) There have been times in Earth's history when there has been much more ice, even close to the equator, yet it’s not there now so it must have happened before and there was a similar melt in the 1930's. He forgot to mention the fact that in September there was a polar storm that raged for 5 days instead of the average 40 hours which contributed to the amount of ice break up and melt
3) He failed to say how the polar bear got to where it was and why it couldn't get back the same way remembering that polar bears can swim so claiming it was stranded was wrong.
In his subsequent complaint to the ACMA, the complainant added the following:
... [The Presenter’s] claims listed above, without explaining all the facts to the viewing audience, would lead a “normal” person to believe that the planet is in danger because of our CO2 emissions. As a presenter on a news and current affairs Program, he has an obligation to present all the facts to the viewing audience and not leave out relevant information or misrepresent events with the sole aim of convincing people to believe what they would not otherwise believe. Regardless of what you believe on this topic, no one has the right to deliberately mislead the public, especially when he knows how divisive this issue is. His actions have been irresponsible and are a blatant breach of the Code of Conduct...
Broadcaster Submissions
The Licensee responded to the complainant in the following terms:
...The segment you refer to was approximately 47 seconds in total and described a photograph the hosts said was obtained from the Daily Telegraph. In the [Segment], it was noted that publication of it was ‘intended to demonstrate the effects of climate change in the Arctic’ and that ‘unbelievably, that has never really happened before in that part of the Arctic – that the ice sheet has broken up so considerably’. The host finally noted that the ‘stranded’ bear is one of the results of the ice breaking up so considerably.
I have reviewed the material and believe it was presented accurately and in accordance with our obligations under the Code. The segment was clearly only intended to canvass the topic of climate change insofar as it was relevant to describe the photograph of the polar bear depicted on screen. The segment did not purport to, nor do we believe it did, suggest that the brief 47-second segment contained comprehensive information about incidents of climate change, or the various factors which may have contributed to the breaking of the ice in this particular image. In any event, regardless of other factors that may contribute to the breaking of ice sheets in the arctic, we believe it was reasonable to assert that the image reflected the effects of climate change, having regard to the general information available about such change on the Arctic.
As regards the description of the bear as ‘stranded’, we note that the New Shorter Oxford English relevantly defines the term to mean:
‘...abandoned in an isolated or inaccessible position; left (behind), esp. by withdrawing a means of access or transport’
Given the bear’s ‘isolated’ and seemingly ‘inaccessible’ position, we believe it was accurate to describe it as ‘stranded’. In any event, the host’s comment was clearly only intended to describe an observation he made about the image. This comment was also peripheral to the focus of the segment, which concerned climate change, rather than the bear’s well-being.
Finding
The Licensee did not breach clause 4.3.1 of the Code.
Reasons
The complainant is concerned with the following statements made by the Presenter during the Segment (in bold):
Hey, look at this great photo we ahh... we got out of The Daily Telegraph today... Intended, of course, to demonstrate the effects of climate change in the Arctic. Now, unbelievably, that has never really happened before in that part of the Arctic; that the ice sheet has broken up so considerably. And this is one of the... the results of that... the bears getting stranded.
The complainant alleges that the following assertions are factually inaccurate:
1) The Photo was proof of climate change.
2) The ice melt had never happened before in that part of the Arctic.
3) The polar bear was stranded.
Clause 4.3.1 of the Code applies to the presentation of factual material in news and current affairs programs. In assessing broadcast content against the accuracy provisions of the Code, the ACMA must first determine whether the relevant material amounts to factual material or the expression of an opinion. Clause 4.3.1.1 provides that the context of the segment in its entirety must be considered.
The Segment opened with a judgmental introductory remark which set the tenor and tone of the segment – ‘hey look at this great photo...’. The Segment on whole was interspersed with several expressions of opinion and commentary that were inherently subjective in nature and contestable. For example:
· Hey, look at this great photo
· ‘Unbelievably...’
· ‘did they take that from an aeroplane?’
· ‘I don’t know... I assume so’
However, depending on the terms in which an opinion is expressed, such commentary can convey factual material underpinning those opinions. In this case, the ordinary, reasonable viewer would have understood the factual comments underpinning the opinion to be:
· that a photograph had appeared in The Daily Telegraph which had the intention of showing the effects of climate change, including the ice sheet breaking up at an unprecedented rate and polar bears being stranded as a result.
· that such effects of climate change had never happened before.
The ACMA is satisfied that these assertions were accurately presented for the purposes of clause 4.3.1 of the Code. In this regard, it is noted that the Presenter prefaced his discussion of the Photo with the fact that it had appeared in the Article and that it was ‘intended... to demonstrate the effects of climate change’ (emphasis added). Having reviewed the content of the Article, it was not inaccurate to state that this was what the Photo was intending to demonstrate. An extract of the Article is as follows:
ALONE and unsure of where to step next, this polar bear was snapped from a boat in Svalbard -- an archipelago midway between mainland Norway and the North Pole -- around four in the morning. Walking on broken-up ice floes, the bear appeared tentative, not quite sure where to trust its weight.
Polar bears rely almost entirely on the marine sea ice environment for their survival and year by year increasing temperatures are reducing the amount of ice cover and the amount of time available for the bears to hunt marine mammals.
The Presenter’s comments (‘that has never really happened before in that part of the Arctic; that the ice sheet has broken up so considerably. And this is one of the results of that... the bears getting stranded’) reflected the content of the Article. As such, the factual material presented during the Segment was accurate in that the Presenter faithfully reported the manner in which the Photo had been presented and its intended message.