JANET SMITH AGAINST THE NZ HERALD

The NZ Herald published an article on July 13, 2024, headlined Teen offenders chosen, start date confirmed for Govt boot camp pilot. This was a story about plans for the start of a new boot camp trial set to start two weeks later. There was a small photograph alongside the story showing the silhouette of a man with arms raised behind two strands of barbed wire. There was no information in the caption saying where or when the photo was taken and there was no other identifying information.

Janet Smith complained that it was inappropriate to use this photograph. To associate this scheme with a photograph reminiscent of war time concentration camp was journalism at its lowest level.

She believed this was a breach of Media Council Principles (1) Accuracy, Fairness and Balance, (3) Children and Young People and (11) Photographs and Captions.

The NZ Herald responded that the photograph was taken several years ago at Burnham Military Camp in Christchurch where a photographer was invited to take photos at an earlier boot camp run by the NZ Defence Force.

The barbed wire and climbing bars were features of the Burnham course and media were invited to attend and take photos provided they did not identify the young people involved.

The photograph complied with the conditions imposed that day and was selected to illustrate this article because the new boot camp initiative had yet to begin. Like the previous initiative, the NZ Defence Force will be involved in the boot camps although there is some confusion about how exactly. Physical activities will be included in the programme. Media have yet to be allowed to attend the pilot programme and there were no recent images to publish so the earlier boot camp image was used.

The NZ Herald believed the use of this file photograph complied with all relevant Media Council principles including the requisite blurring of the teen participant's face to satisfy Principles (2) Privacy and (3) Children and Young People.

The Media Council believes it was clear that this image did not show the new boot camp as the pilot had not yet started at the time this story was published.

The Media Council accepted the NZ Herald’s explanation of where and when the photo was taken about 15 years ago, and presumably young men in the new boot camp would still be retained against their will by walls or wires of some sort.

It might have been advisable for the NZ Herald to say where the photo was taken to make it clear it wasn’t a concentration camp. However, there was no implication that this was a concentration camp.  The young man shown was not emaciated, and the rough barbed wire was as much New Zealand as Central Europe.  In the absence of any current photograph, it was not unfair to use this image.

There are no grounds to proceed.