Transgender ambush of Australian Press Council

The Australian Press Council has been dragged before a tribunal by a transgender lobby group that accused it of discrimination.

Rainbow Rights Watch director Warner Ward.

The Australian Press Council has been dragged before the NSW Civil and Administrative Appeal Tribunal by a small transgender lobby group that accused it of discriminating against transgender people by treating their complaints less favourably than those lodged by other complainants.

The little-known group Rainbow Rights Watch has swamped the Press Council with numerous complaints against major media publishers over their portrayal of transgender people.

According to documents filed with the corporate regulator, the Sydney-based lobby group has three directors — Claire Southey, who according to LinkedIn is a technical integration manager, Lilian Dean, who according to LinkedIn is an IT architect, and Warner Ward, an IT systems engineer who is also on the board of gay and lesbian counselling service Twenty10.

The Press Council this week upheld complaints, believed to have been lodged by Rainbow Rights Watch, against The Daily Mail and nine.com.au for referring to the transgender status of a woman charged with manslaughter. The woman, Jade Walker — the sister of NRL star Dylan Walker — had been charged over the death of her boyfriend following a domestic violence incident but was later cleared by police.

The Press Council ruled Ms Walker’s transgender status was not relevant to the alleged criminality and by reporting it the sites had breached the council’s general principles.

Daily Mail Australia’s managing director Peter Holder said his organisation was a committed Press Council member but was “becoming increasingly concerned and frustrated” by the way it was “being held to ransom by a small but well-drilled group which appears to oppose any use of the ‘T word’.”

The Daily Mail Australia had also been receiving complaints about articles published by The Daily Mail in Britain and the US, which appeared under its local masthead if accessed via search engines, he said.

Mr Holder said a distinction needed to be made between complaints triggered by “genuine offence” and those arising from “key word searches for articles”.

“There’s a huge difference between being offended and looking to be offended,” he said.

News.com.au editor-in-chief Kate de Brito this week said the Press Council seemed “determined to censor the media from using the word ‘transgender’ ”.

Nevertheless, one of Rainbow Rights Watch’s directors has complained to the NSW Anti-Discrimination Board that the Press Council has treated the group’s concerns less favourably than equivalent complaints by people who were not transgender.

The complaint has been referred by the Anti-Discrimination Board to the NSW Civil and ­Administrative Appeals Tribunal.

It alleges the Press Council improperly disposed of the complaint, lodged by Rainbow Rights Watch, about an article published on News.com.au about 7-Eleven axe attacker Evie Amati.

The article referred prominently to Amati’s transgender stat­us, which played a key role at her trial.

Rainbow Rights Watch said the article contributed to the prejudice and distress experienced by transgender people and by dismissing the complaint, the Press Council had discriminated against her by treating her complaint less favourably than complaints related to individuals’ refugee status or religion.

The campaign being waged by Rainbow Rights Watch is believed to be unprecedented in the Press Council’s history, draining the organisation’s limited resources and requiring countless hours on the part of media executives to respond to the complaints.

A Press Council spokeswoman said the organisation was currently developing an advisory guideline, in consultation with the community and industry, dealing with reporting on LGBTI issues. It is expected to be completed within 12 to 18 months.

Rainbow Rights Watch last year published a report that evaluated the sentiment of almost 7000 articles published in 2016 and 2017 in Australia concerning transgender people. It said the articles were overwhelmingly negative and frequently contained prejudicial language, slurs and inaccuracies.