How Tracey Spicer has let down #MeToo
The ABC’s identification of rape victims is the latest nail in the coffin of Australia’s #MeToo movement, which has been derailed by defamation action and threats of litigation, writes Lucy Carne.
“Naive” is not a word normally associated with Tracey Spicer.
But “naive” is what the 30-year veteran of journalism and Walkley winner claimed to be when the identities of rape victims were revealed in documentary footage.
The names, faces and confidential personal stories of victims of sexual and domestic violence — that were shared privately with Spicer — were visible in preview footage for the ABC documentary Silent No More that was circulated to media, an investigation by Nina Funnell for news.com.au and BuzzFeed revealed.
Spicer, 52, who stars in the three-part doco, dismissed accusations that she had breached the women’s privacy.
“Some of the names that appeared were not supposed to be in the background at all,” she told the National Press Club on Wednesday.
“That’s something you will have to bring up with the production company and the ABC. I was personally given assurances these were not be in shot.”
She also claimed she had been possibly “naive” to the process of redacting the names.
Claiming to be a victim of broken promises is hard to accept.
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This is the accomplished journalist who put herself forward in 2017 as the poster girl of Australia’s #MeToo movement. And who was a joint winner of the 2019 Sydney Peace Awards for her work.
Spicer promoted herself as the protector of women’s stories of sexual harassment and assault.
“Currently, I am investigating two long-term offenders in our media industry. Please, contact me privately to tell your stories,” she urged on Twitter.
It triggered a deluge of thousands of responses, she said.
In 2017, she even claimed to have the names of 40 “household names” accused of being sexual predators.
Spicer vowed to “name and shame” them, she told The Daily Telegraph at the time.
“We are not going at this like a bull at a gate, we are being very careful and we are bringing everyone into the tent — police, lawyers, unions, managers and obviously women who have been affected because we want to do this properly,” she added.
So to now minimise her role in this breach of trust, lets down not just the women whose identities were revealed, but potentially scares off victims who may want to come forward. The damage is irreversible.
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Protecting your source is the first rule of journalism.
Spicer — and our “trusted” national broadcaster — should be well aware of their duty of care.
The female victims visible in the footage did not give consent to their stories (let alone their identities) being shared beyond the supposed security of Spicer’s inbox.
Spicer’s responsibility should always have been to shield these vulnerable women from any further trauma.
Accepting it was a genuine mistake, she should own it like the ABC and production company Southern Pictures who have apologised for the error.
Calling out Spicer to take more accountability is not anti-feminist _ it is about protecting the already fragile and threatened plight of #MeToo in Australia.
It is also about ensuring a standard of ethical practice in the media’s reporting of sexual abuse.
Spicer may have been inspired by the work of The New York Times investigative reporters Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey, who in 2017, reported claims of sexual misconduct against Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein. Their coverage sparked dozens of stars to reveal allegations of decades of abuse from Weinstein, who was dumped from Miramax and is facing charges in New York.
The Weinstein coverage caused a global revolution. But two years on, while some famous careers have been cancelled, there have been few convictions from this ‘call out’ culture.
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Unlike the US, Australia is even more hostile to the #MeToo movement and any attempts to publicise allegations have been largely derailed by defamation laws.
Any claims against high profile names quickly result in defamation action or the threat of legal retaliation.
“Even if they didn’t proceed, that is in effect a threat hanging over people and it has a silencing effect,” University of Technology Sydney associate professor Dr Karen O’Connell said.
The expert in discrimination law and sexual discrimination said the treatment of female complainants has done little to encourage women to speak up.
“It seems ridiculous to me that we have such greater laws to protect people’s reputation than to protect people who have been harmed,” Assoc Prof Dr O’Connell said.
Add on top of that the “naive” sharing of victims’ identities, and it’s no wonder #MeToo is losing its voice.
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Lucy Carne is the editor of RendezView.com.au
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