The front page of Courier Mail with the controversial story.
The Australian Press Council has ruled The Courier Mail’s coverage of Mayang Prasetyo’s murder last year as “offensive” and “presented in a manner that was not reasonably fair and balanced”.
The day after the initial reporting of the murder a barrage of condemnation flowed from rival media outlets branding News Limited’s coverage as “salacious”.
Amy Gray, of The Guardian, said the coverage victimised Prasetyo by “describing her as a “transgendered prostitute” and underlining her Indonesian heritage before tearing through her social media to find pictures of her.”
Clementine Ford of Fairfax Media’s Daily Life said Prasetyo was “unnecessarily and offensively described in the very second sentence of The Courier Mail’s article as being “a transgendered prostitute”.
Hundreds of complaints to the Australian Press Council supported this sentiment and yesterday the council said the coverage was offensive and breached press standards.
“The council considers that the prominent treatment given to the victim’s gender, and the repetitive detail of her sex work, was gratuitous and contributed to the substantial offence caused by the terminology used to describe the murder victim,” according to the adjudication published in The Courier Mail on Tuesday.
Asian media and culture lecturer at RMIT, Dr Glen Donnar, said the council’s ruling is a significant online casino gids precedent to limit offensive language but said gender discourse can be a complicated and sensitive topic – particularly when controlled by commentators in the media.
“I think the reaction against The Courier Mail headlines are important but it always has to be balanced,” he said. “It needs to make sure it is not just the media talking about itself and that it doesn’t victimise or disempower her (Prasetyo) in an equal but opposite way as the original headlines did.
“It’s a fine balance between, in some ways, doing exactly what those that attack or demean do, which is belittle her or take away her agency. So people just have to balance how you offer that support,” Dr Donnar said.
“I think that you can offer public support, which can be perceived as protective, as long as that support isn’t delivered in a paternalistic fashion. You can support someone, even try to protect them and still ensure that they retain their individuality and their agency.”
The executive director of Transgender Victoria, Sally Gordner, said the ruling serves to suggest there has been some progress in terms of peoples’ attitudes and awareness towards the transgender community, but there is still some way to go.
“The coverage was done in a sensationalist way because they focused on the occupation and the gender identities for no reason,” she said. “The primary focus of this story was murder, victims of crime and domestic violence.
“The individual was not murdered because they worked in the sex industry or because they were trans in that sense, and therefore that is sensationalism and it is irrelevant to include these details.
“I think it shows that attitudes are shifting on trans- and gender issues but there is still a long way to go,” Ms Gordner said. “I think there needs to be a concerted education campaign by the state, territory and federal anti-discrimination bodies on the issue.”
