Bloggers - let's keep ALL the bastards honest
September 4th 2006 21:58
As Australia's press commemorates the passing of the Democrats founder Don Chipp, famous for campaigning on "let's keep the bastards honest" - let's look at how we bloggers can help keep ALL the bastards honest. Not just politicians but the press and everyone else, even pedophiles!
News commentators love their jibes against political leaders. But in clamouring for what's sensational, reporters and editors actually deprive us of balanced journalism, whenever they leave out facts pertinent to a subject which might get in the way of a good story.
Take for example last weekend's interest in the Opposition Leader's call in the New South Wales Parliament for the Labor Government to introduce US-style Megan's Law, to make public the address and other details of convicted sex offenders of children.
For a report giving all the cons as well as pros to the idea, it was necessary to google to Queensland for the Townsville Bulletin. Local NSW press left out certain facts favourable to the position taken by NSW Police Minister Mr Scully against making the police registry public.
Neither ABC's Friday night 7:30 Stateline report nor Sydney Morning Herald's report the next day gave a vital statistic: How many people are on the child sex offenders register in NSW? Answer, 2,400 according to the Townsville Bulletin report. But releases from prison are swelling the number all the time. And it would be helpful to know that people stay on the register for 10 or more years. So a reduction in the number registered can't come until aging pedophiles die off.
With the number approaching 3,000 - that seems to imply a lot of NSW men behaving themselves under police surveillance compared to the few that make sensational reports for the press. The old editors' cry - why let the facts get in the way of a good story. Better not to give facts that might dampen the public clamour: "Lock up all the pedophiles! Throw away the key!!"
What's the public cost of keeping a convicted pedophile in protective custody in prison. At least $80,000 each a year, I believe. That's more than $100,000 loss per head per annum to the community including each one's loss of earnings, times 3,000 if NSW prisons are to hold onto all those currently being let out on the police register.
What happens when a state's police register of offenders is made public like on the internet, as NSW Parliament's Opposition Leader Peter Debnam wants tried here? No mention in the Sydney Morning Herald's report. But thanks to Queensland reporter Peter Jean and the Townsville Bulletin editor, we learn an important statistic. From the experience of US states adopting the Megans Law approach, the average proportion who disappear from the register and go underground when their details are made public is 30 percent. How much harder would that make it for NSW police to case manage them?
And what happens to a pedophile's self-control when he has to go underground to make himself safe from society's more rabid, self-righteous defenders who try to burn his house? We need police (not public) coersion to keep these creeps agreeable to being watched carefully.
The Townsville Bulletin gave its readers the assessment of perhaps the nation's most tireless agitator for reforms that better control pedophiles:
"Hetty Johnston, the founder of anti-child abuse group Bravehearts, said Megan's law-style legislation in the United States and the United Kingdom had not worked because child abusers had either gone underground or offended away from where they lived.
"Ms Johnston said all parents should assume there might be a pedophile in their neighbourhood and teach their children appropriate protective behaviour.
"We all have to go about our lives with that understanding – that there could be offender living in your street," she said.
For the whole report - Pedophile [public] register 'won't work'
The blog community' capacity to debate matters can be good for bringing balance too. Have a look at this in Legal Herald
Public register pros and cons
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