The New Zealand Media Council has gone where angels fear to tread by questioning the fairness of republishing something that was already common knowledge.
The council has upheld a complaint – on fairness grounds – by the family of a man investigated as a suspect in the disappearance of Mona Blades 50 years ago. Police found nothing to substantiate those suspicions and closed that line of enquiry. The Mona Blades mystery, however, remains an open cold case.
The complaint was made by the daughter of the man, a deceased traffic officer who had been implicated by a retired policeman who is now also dead. The Media Council found Rotorua’s Daily Post was unfair in “the unnecessary naming of him on the flimsy and entirely unsubstantiated theory of one deceased man” in a story marking the 50thanniversary of the day the 18-year-old disappeared while hitch-hiking from Hamilton to Hastings.
The decision was not unanimous. Four of the ten members of the council dissented. You can read the decision here .
Let me put it bluntly: The Media Council majority got it wrong. Continue reading “Media Council must review its Mona Blades cold case decision”