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Comment on Teenage boy allegedly stabbed to death in front of lunchtime crowd at Melbourne shopping centre

Baku@aussie.zone ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

Side note: it really irks me that almost every ABC article has “allegedly” somewhere in the title.

I get they’re all paranoid about being sued, but this isn’t alleged, a kid was ACTUALLY stabbed. That can’t be disputed, and you can’t be sued for defamation for claiming that something that actually happened, happened.

For some people it’s “POV:”. For me it’s “allegedly this situation that very obviously happened, happened”.

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zero_gravitas@aussie.zone ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
They must have heard you because the headline on the article page is now “Boy, 16, fatally stabbed at shopping centre in Melbourne’s west”

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- Baku@aussie.zone ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Thanks z! I’ve updated the title
  
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princessnorah@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Not in the title, but “allege” and it’s variants are used eight times in the article.

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Cypher@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
It is journalistic good practice, and not merely fear of defamation suits.

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- Baku@aussie.zone ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Negative, it is poor journalistic practice.
  
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  - Cypher@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    smh.com.au/…/alleged-crimes-and-obscured-identiti…
    
    Your layman opinion on this is really worthless, the media industry and media standards agree that it is good practice.
    
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Duenan@aussie.zone ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
For legal reasons they have to use alleged until court proceedings make a judgement officially or it becomes defamatory.

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- Baku@aussie.zone ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  How is it defamatory? It’s not defamatory. It doesn’t accuse a specific person of stabbing anyone, and a situation can’t be defamation. Unless shopping centres or suburbs can sue for defamation, in which case, they still couldn’t, because it objectively happened.
  
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  - Duenan@aussie.zone ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    Because it hasn’t been tried in court and an official ruling hasn’t been made.
    
    smh.com.au/…/alleged-crimes-and-obscured-identiti…
    
    There are technicalities to the legal system, if you name them as a murdered and the case was acquitted or a different outcome came of it from the court ruling you have just named them a murderer when technically they weren’t and you have defamed them.
    
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    Baku@aussie.zone ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    Yes, but in regard to the title, nobody was accused, therefore nobody can sue for defamation.
    
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