WK 3: McCarthy’s investigative campaign a response to abuse media coverage


Joanne McCarthy’s investigative reporting of child sexual abuse followed limited media coverage in Australia of the institutional injustice.

Newcastle Herald journalist Joanne McCarthy. Image: ABC

McCarthy’s reporting for the Newcastle Herald began when the Pope visited Australia for World Youth Day in 2008.

The side story that surrounded the historic visit was the call for an apology from the head of the church to the Australian victims of child sexual abuse.

For years leading up to the 2008 event, there had been limited media aiming to expose some of the clergy crimes.

A 1992 ABC Compass documentary presented an estimation that up to 15 percent of all clergy had been involved in sexual and professional abuse.

At the time, it was branded ‘sensationalist’ and ‘lacking substance’.

From then, only a 60 Minutes documentary and a book had provided exposure to the historic and hidden crimes.

Sydney newspaper The Daily Telegraph became the official ‘World Youth Day newspaper’.

At no stage during their coverage did they speak to a victim of abuse.

An apology from the head of the church appeared in a page nine story.

Around the same time, the Newcastle Herald had been speaking with victims in the Hunter Valley.

It was here that McCarthy’s work took off. Victims began to come forward, engulfing her reporting of the crimes.

The Newcastle Herald took a position to report from the victim’s viewpoint. McCarthy was allowed to continue sustained research which revealed the widespread and extensive abuse, and institutional cover-up. 

Some of The Herald's coverage. Image: CanDoWisdom

Her work has been considered advocacy. Many news articles were accompanied by opinion or commentary-style pieces.

She self-described her aim as an effort to “restore faith in institutions”, “shine the light on criminals” and “expose those who tried to hide them”.

One of her commentary pieces included the statement: “There will be a royal commission because there must be.”

Four years after the Pope’s visit and McCarthy’s campaign began, Prime Minister Julia Gillard approved a Royal Commission into child sexual abuse.

Comments

  1. ChristinaSeptember 3, 2017 at 3:47 AM

    Joanne McCarthy started writing about the sexual abuse scandal in the Catholic Church in 2006

    ReplyDelete

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