The Australian Press Council has ruled that The Sydney Morning Herald breached the council’s standards relating to privacy when they indicated they were about to publish news that actor Rebel Wilson was in a same-sex relationship.
The Press Council considered whether its Standards of Practice were breached by an article published in the Private Sydney column headed Rebel starts spreading the news on 11th June 2022.
The article reported that actress Rebel Wilson had announced on Instagram she was in a relationship with Ramona Agruma.
The complaints raised concerns that the columnist’s request for a response about Wilson’s same-sex relationship could be perceived as a threat to “out” her as gay, and this in turn forced her to out herself on social media, and that the article criticised her for not responding.
The publication conceded it breached the Council’s General Principles relating to privacy and avoidance of harm, previously retracted the article from its website and apologised.
The retraction and apology came after a public outcry over the article published in the column authored by journalist Andrew Hornery, and a statement from editor Bevan Shields that defended the reporting. Both later apologised and conceded that the newspaper’s correspondence to Wilson could have been interpreted as a threat to ‘out’ her.
The Council said it considered the article’s reference to “outing” same-sex celebrity couples, its reference to giving Ms Wilson two days to respond, and its criticism of her for not responding, was likely to cause substantial offence and distress without sufficient public interest.
In its judgement the council said they accepted that public figures, such as Rebel Wilson, can have a reduced expectation of privacy and there can also be a public interest sufficient to justify intruding on their reasonable expectations of privacy.
However, in this instance, the Council considered that the tenor of the publication’s communications with Wilson concerning a deeply personal matter and the associated commentary on a matter which had no apparent connection to her public activities, intruded on her reasonable expectations of privacy.
OIP Staff
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