Sent: Thursday, 9 February 2012 4:12 PM
To: Miranda, Charles
Subject: Media Watch questions
Hi Charles,
As mentioned on the phone, Media Watch is taking a look at your newspaper’s coverage of
the proposed changes to the NSW Crimes Act.
On January 23, The Daily Telegraph published a front page article titled, “Soft touch”. The
article contained the following sentence, which contains quotes attributed to the AttorneyGeneral Greg Smith: “Describing jails as a "university of crime" for young people, he wants
to "encourage the use of more non-custodial and community-based sentences as a viable
alternative to full-time incarceration".
That quote was taken from a media release from September 23, 2011, available on the
Attorney-General’s website. Here is the quote in full: “We need to encourage the use of more
non-custodial and community-based sentences as a viable alternative to full-time
incarceration for less serious offences,” Mr Smith said.
1. In his report Anthony Clennell omitted the words “for less serious offences”. As such, do you
believe your journalist accurately conveyed the true meaning of the Attorney-General’s
argument? If so, why?
Yes. Howard Brown the victims advocate was quoted in the same story supporting Smith,
suggesting that people should be released when convicted of less serious offences and drive by
shooters locked up for longer. Victims group advocate Howard Brown, who is on the Sentencing
Council, backed Mr Smith's push, saying there was no point locking people up for just six
months.
2. In The Daily Telegraph’s coverage of Sydney’s drive-by shootings, in the January 13 edition, it
was reported that the maximum penalty for discharging a firearm with intent is 25 years
imprisonment. Do you believe this qualifies as a “less serious offence”, and If not, why did the
article “Soft touch” include a reference to Sydney’s “drive-by shooting epidemic”?
Drive-by shootings are mostly done at night and those behind them are rarely caught in the act.
That said, police have said they believe they know the identity of some of those behind the
shootings but lack the evidence to bring these matters to court so are arresting them for lesser
offences
3. The Sentencing Council’s discussion paper was released in September last year. Why did it take
The Daily Telegraph four months to report on the proposed changes to sentencing?
The discussion paper’s release late last year was not widely reported but had to be read in
conjunction with a draft discussion paper on Sentencing that was released by the Sentencing
Council the week of publication.
On February 1 your paper published an article titled, “Go straight to jail” on pages 1 and 2,
about a Law Reform Commission report which proposes changes to bail laws.
4. The article mentions to a “decision which has angered police”. Given that the article refers to a
draft report which is due to be finalised on February 29, what “decision” was your newspaper
referring to?
The outcomes of the draft Law Reform Commission report.
5. Can you explain what your journalist Andrew Clennell was referring to in that article when
describing a “get out of jail free card”?
You’ve obviously never played Monopoly. Referred to recommendations in the as yet
unreleased report that people of a certain sexual preference or from a multicultural background
should get bail