Hey tabloid voyeurs! You are a threat to justice

IS the media expose of allegations of sexual assault against Hey Dad! actor Robert Hughes a case of valiant investigative journalism or just another episode of the media's penchant for chequebook voyeurism? The answer is neither. This is not just another episode of the media exchanging cash to feed our voyeuristic hunger.

There is voyeurism and then there is voyeurism. March has been a busy month for both forms: one harmless, where the media pimps a low-rent drama about a former bikini model and an Australian cricketer; the other harmful, where the media sets itself up as investigator, prosecutor and jury of a former television sitcom star alleged to have touched up young girls on and off the set.

The media frenzy sparked by the allegations made by Sarah Monahan, the former Hey Dad! child actress, against her screen father Hughes a few weeks ago is the worst kind of Australian journalism. This is a textbook case of irresponsible media conduct that diminishes, rather than enhances, our democratic institutions.

Media outlets such as Woman's Day, which first revealed Monahan's allegations against an unnamed man, and Channel 9's A Current Affair, which followed up by naming Hughes, say they are just doing their job.

In a statement peppered with capital letters, Grant Williams, executive producer of ACA, says his show's expose "CAUSED" a police investigation rather than hindered one. Using capitals to force a point is no substitute for reasoned argument. Woman's Day and ACA may have sparked an investigation, but their conduct may have hindered a fair trial for a man accused in the media of abusing children. And if Hughes is innocent, the media has damaged his reputation beyond repair. Defamation damages cannot compensate for the cloud of pedophilia that will always hang over him.

This is not about defending a pervert and trashing a victim. This is about protecting a justice system that depends on a professional police investigation and an impartial jury pool capable of judging the evidence, evidence that police and courts do not pay for. Only this week, Queensland judge John Byrne in the Jayant Patel trial discharged another juror to protect the court's impartiality, telling the court that "it is both the reality of and public appearance of impartiality [that] are critical".

A an editorial in Sydney's The Sunday Telegraph told us to be grateful, arguing that but for media's involvement, any complaints made by Monahan "would have gone absolutely nowhere".

How does the Telegraph know this? Allegations of sexual abuse often surface only after the passing of many years. Victims often sit on the distress, hurt and embarrassment for years until they finally turn to the police and the courts.

Monahan and her co-accusers turned to the media.

Last Friday, a full 10 days after first telling Woman's Day in a paid interview that she was abused by a man on the set of Hey Dad!, Monahan said that "she was headed straight to the police", only after giving another (reportedly paid) interview to ACA.

Angela Kemp, who replaced Monahan on the Hey Dad! set, answered queries from The Sunday Telegraph by saying: "I just want to respect the agreement I have given to Woman's Day."

When asked whether she would go to the police, she said, "It's not my intention."

Others have also gone public with allegations against Hughes, including former actresses Megan Waters, Simone Buchanan and two daughters of a sound technician who worked on the sitcom's set. There are no reasons to doubt their motives, but there is something terribly wrong if their public statements, egged on by media outlets desperate for more readers and more viewers, taint an investigation and possible prosecution.

There was something equally wrong when former cast member Ben Oxenbould told ACA last week that he knew what was going on and was now relieved to "purge" the 17 years of silence. Seeking redemption is Oxenbould's personal business. But this kind of public purging of private guilt has the potential to compromise an investigation into the serious allegations of abuse.

And by the way, why did no one, no one at all, go to the police 17 years ago?

The media rightly complains about China's closed justice system. We have no idea if the normal protections afforded to an accused by a sound justice system were applied to Rio Tinto executive Stern Hu, sentenced this week to 10 years' jail by a closed Chinese court. But open slather trial-by-media of Hughes by some sections of the Australian media is equally egregious. So open it has none of the courtroom protections, a media trial sits at the other end of the spectrum.

It's all well and good for Jonathan Holmes on ABC1's Media Watch to conclude that ACA "came up with something that feels to me like truth".

The truth has yet to be established. We have courts to test evidence and juries to make that determination. The fourth estate has an important role to play in our democracy. It can and should shine a light into dark places so long as it does not jeopardise the proper workings of our justice system. There is a far greater public interest in ensuring a fair trial for an alleged pedophile than providing a media platform for the public to watch his fall from grace.

Voyeurism should be limited to the harmless stuff - the staple diet of Australian women's magazines - and the fluff that increasingly fills our newspapers.

If Lara Bingle wants to sell her story to Woman's Day, you go girl.

As a reader, by all means, follow the unconfirmed travels of a large engagement ring down the sewers of eastern Sydney, the final break-up with Michael Clarke, and the recent news that the single Bingle must now buy her own dog food: no more home deliveries to the $4 million Bondi apartment.

If you love this stuff, read it. Read it all.

But the public laundering of allegations against Hughes takes us into dangerous territory. Remember that not everyone chose the media path. One-time chaperone of some of the Hey Dad! child actors, Annette Hardy, declined to comment. "I have to go and speak with the police," she said. Paul Smith, another former cast member, said he had been offered money to talk but declined.

This week, the NSW Sex Crimes Squad started investigations into the sex abuse allegations. Squad commander John Kerlatec said on Monday that the "NSW Police Force will provide no further comment on this matter until the investigative process has been finalised". That is as it should be. And shame on those in the media whose claims of moral righteousness are too self-serving to be taken seriously.