‘Did we get it right? I’m not sure we did’: The Age condemned for censoring Nazi pic

Nine Entertainment’s Melbourne newspaper has been criticised by members of the Jewish community for failing to publish images of the Nazi salute being performed at a women’s right protest.

Protest groups give the Nazi salute in front of the Victorian parliament. Picture: David Crosling

The editor of The Age has written to the masthead’s digital subscribers to seek feedback on the newspaper’s decision to censor images of men performing the Nazi salute on the steps of the Victorian parliament.

Patrick Elligett, the recently appointed editor of the Melbourne-based newspaper, sent an email on March 24 to The Age’s tens of thousands of online subscribers, conceding he may have made a mistake by deciding not to publish the pictures.

The photos were widely shown across several media outlets, including the ABC, News Corp (publisher of The Australian) and the Guardian.

In his 700-word email — titled “The confronting image we didn’t show you” – Elligett says he was “confused” and “outraged” after the “second-grade bullies, the men in black” attended a Let Women Speak event led by women’s rights activist Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull (aka Posie Parker).

Elligett said that after the images landed in the inboxes of staff at The Age “it didn’t take long for an often-fought newsroom debate to begin”.

“A strong argument against running the picture was made by a senior editor … who believed the image would be unnecessarily confronting and disturbing for readers, particularly in the Jewish community,” he wrote. “One of our journalists, who is Jewish, told me … she was repulsed and disturbed by the images”.

Elligett admitted he doubted himself and said while his “default starting position on confronting images is that we should run them” he decided against doing so.

“Some media outlets chose to run the pictures,” he wrote.

“Others blurred elements of the photo to obscure the offensive gestures, others like us ran pictures of the fascist group, but selected alternative images that didn’t include the salute.

“Did we get it right? I’m not sure we did. I’m interested in your views. Would you have published such a photo?”

Australian Jewish Association president David Adler said while he condemned the “disgraceful” actions of the neo-Nazis at the rally, The Age should not have censored images of what took place in Melbourne’s CBD.

“AJA believes strongly that we need to fully expose the problem as a necessary step to pursuing solutions,” Mr Adler said.

“We did not hesitate to make the images of the Nazis available for that reason. Hiding the truth has never been helpful in combating anti-Semitism.”

The AJA opted to run the image across their platforms including on its social media accounts; one video it shared on Twitter, showing the images of the Nazi salute, has been viewed more than 291,000 times.

Former federal Victorian Labor MP Michael Danby, who is Jewish, said the images of the “abominable act” should have been published by The Age. “I think those images should be run so people can see how truly awful what happened was,” he said.

However, the Australia Israel & Jewish Affairs Council executive director Colin Rubenstein said "abominable behaviour must always be condemned".

"Responsible journalists and editors need to be mindful of the risks of giving racist thugs the publicity they crave and causing distress and upset to the targets of neo-Nazis and the like," he said.

"There is no single correct answer to the dilemma of whether to publish, provide photos or show videos, or not, and achieving the right balance in any coverage is a matter of conscious, conscientious judgement with respect to each occasion or incident.

"We accept and understand that different editors may come to different decisions in any given case– but hope and expect that they will always consider these issues seriously and responsibly before they do so.”

The decision not to run the photo is the second time in two months that The Age has been under scrutiny for censorship.

On January 30, the masthead apologised for publishing an illustration that depicted two black female actors. Elligett said the way the cartoon depicted people of colour was “offensive”, and it was removed from the masthead’s digital platforms. At the time, Elligett declined to answer whether there were any editorial discussions about perceived racist stereotypes.

Nine Entertainment, which owns The Age, was contacted last week about its decision to censor the images of the Nazi salutes, but declined to comment.