Ethnic and Religious Crime in Australian Media: Sensationalism versus Public Interest

Abstract

Around the world, crime is considered worthy to be reported in terms of news value. However, there is a long debate about the importance of revealing the ethnicity and religion of the accused in the crime reporting. This article discusses the relevance of ethnicity and religion of the perpetrators in the crime news coverage in Australia. This issue is analyzed using the perspectives of the Journalists’ Code of Ethics, anti-vilification laws, public interest defense, ethical philosophy and the rules of reporting court cases in Australia. Based on the analysis, it is found that the attribution of ethnicity and religion of the accused is not necessary for reporting crime. Highlighting the ethnicity and religion is to seek profit and promote certain political agenda since it only occurs when the perpetrators are Middle Eastern people and Muslims. Such attribution also breaches the Journalists’ Code of Ethics and anti-vilification laws in Australia. Such conduct cannot be ethically justified as it could incite hatred towards Muslim/Middle Eastern people and harm multiculturalism in Australia. Keywords— ethnicity; religion; journalists’ code of ethics; public interest; sensationalism; Australia