this post was submitted on 25 Sep 2024
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Side note: it really irks me that almost every ABC article has "allegedly" somewhere in the title.
I get they're all paranoid about being sued, but this isn't alleged, a kid was ACTUALLY stabbed. That can't be disputed, and you can't be sued for defamation for claiming that something that actually happened, happened.
For some people it's "POV:". For me it's "allegedly this situation that very obviously happened, happened".
The headline on the article page is (currently) "Boy, 16, fatally stabbed at shopping centre in Melbourne's west", so I don't know why the share-preview headline has 'allegedly'
Thanks z! I've updated the title
Not in the title, but "allege" and it's variants are used eight times in the article.
It is journalistic good practice, and not merely fear of defamation suits.
Negative, it is poor journalistic practice.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/alleged-crimes-and-obscured-identities-how-does-crime-reporting-work-20210302-p5772w.html
Your layman opinion on this is really worthless, the media industry and media standards agree that it is good practice.
For legal reasons they have to use alleged until court proceedings make a judgement officially or it becomes defamatory.
How is it defamatory? It's not defamatory. It doesn't accuse a specific person of stabbing anyone, and a situation can't be defamation. Unless shopping centres or suburbs can sue for defamation, in which case, they still couldn't, because it objectively happened.
Because it hasn’t been tried in court and an official ruling hasn’t been made.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/alleged-crimes-and-obscured-identities-how-does-crime-reporting-work-20210302-p5772w.html#
There are technicalities to the legal system, if you name them as a murderer and the case was acquitted or a different outcome came of it from the court ruling you have just named them a murderer when technically they weren’t and you have defamed them.
Yes, but in regard to the title, nobody was accused, therefore nobody can sue for defamation.