Pacific Beat
Power and the press
Rape
Allegations In Black and White
As australia's
most powerful aboriginal leader, Geoff Clark is used to seeing
his picture on the front page of the nation's newspapers and
facing the grillings of media scrums. In his job overseeing
the billion-dollar annual purse of Australia's peak indigenous
body, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission,
chairman Clark must regularly account for that organization's
actions. Now he is being called to account for alleged actions
of his own. Last week the Melbourne Age and its sister newspaper
the Sydney Morning Herald published allegations by four women
that Clark had raped them in the 1970s and '80s.
Running
its article under the front-page headline geoff clark: power
and rape, the Age left little doubt that it believed Clark
guilty. The atsic chairman, against whom rape and assault
charges relating to one of the women mentioned in the article
were dismissed last year at committal, described the claims
as "outrageous Š totally unacceptable behavior by the media."
But Age editor and associate publisher Michael Gawenda says
the paper had a duty to print what it had discovered in a
three-month investigation: "What we have done is what any
decent newspaper or magazine would do when confronted with
such compelling evidence."
Three of
the four women quoted in the article had already had their
claims investigated by Victorian police-but, apart from the
one that went to committal, none of the cases has gone any
further. "After consultations with the Office of Public Prosecutions,
the matters will not be proceeded with at this stage," a police
spokesman says. So has the Age put Clark on trial where the
courts would not? That's not the media's job, says Gawenda.
"There is a difference between something being true and something
being proven in a court of law," he says, especially given,
in this case, the time that has passed since the alleged offences
took place. "We are not trying him or meting out any punishment.
The media doesn't convict people of crimes."
Clark's
has been an often-fiery voice for many years in Australia's
blackwhite dialogue. But when he talks about his enemies,
he's often referring to foes within the indigenous community.
He says they're campaigning to topple him, with a little help
now from accomplices in the media. Nonsense, says Gawenda,
who points to his paper's strong advocacy of reconciliation
and support for Clark's organization. What's more, he says,
"we could discover no reason why [the women] would be part
of any conspiracy to damage Geoff Clark."
Whatever
the truth of the claims, many observers are disturbed that
the press has been the forum for such serious allegations.
"Everyone's innocent until proven guilty," said Victorian
Labor Premier Steve Bracks. "I don't think there should be
trial by public exposition or media."
-By LISA CLAUSEN
Fencing
off the Reef
Prickly
Issue
Aquarium enthusiasts who want to create their
own miniature Great Barrier Reef may soon have to settle for
plastic coral castles. Commercial coral harvesting on the
world's biggest reef will be phased out, Australia's Federal
environment minister Robert Hill confirmed last week. Licensing
operators to cart away up to 100 tons of coral a year from
50 football-field sized areas inside the 2,000-km-long national
park is incompatible, the minister said, with fining tourists
up to $A110,000 for trying to take a piece of the reef home.
But some coral experts say the ecological impact of current
harvesting is negligible; the losses "are easily replaced
by coral's natural recovery process," says Cooperative Reef
Research Centre coral biologist Vicky Harriott. The phase-out
hasn't impressed the Queensland Fisheries Service, the aquarium
industry-and the 36 licensed harvesters, who say they were
not consulted about a decision that could bankrupt them. Public
aquariums will still be able to collect limited quantities
of live coral for educational purposes.
-By LEORA MOLDOFSKY
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June 25, 2001 | No. 25
COVER
STORY
How
It All Ends
If you are still trying to wrap your mind around how the universe began-with
that Big Bang that created everything out of nothing-wait until you find
out what is coming at the other end of the space-time continuum
TRAVELERS
ADVISORY...
PACIFIC
BEAT: Aboriginal leader accused; coral corralled...
PACIFIC
OSERVED: Fraser vs. Wake...
THE
ARTS
TELEVISION: Stealthy product placements are
making ads the stars of the show...
CINEMA: Shrek's adventures in animation
MUSIC: Another hot album by Air
BOOKS: Un-endearing Indira Gandhi
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