(Image: AAP/James Ross)

The Australian broke media guidelines in its coverage of the head of a high-profile children’s gender clinic, publishing incorrect information, failing to ensure fairness and causing substantial distress, an Australian Press Council ruling has found. 

Royal Children’s Hospital Gender Service director Dr Michelle Telfer said that the Oz‘s coverage — which comprised 45 articles including reporting, editorials and opinion pieces — wrongly claimed that gender-affirming surgery was experimental.

The newspaper did not tell readers the “experts” cited in the pieces did not treat gender-diverse children, or that the articles referred to discredited theories. The sheer amount of coverage and its tenor was harmful to trans people, their families, and Telfer herself, she says.

The Australian pushed back, arguing that it was in the public interest to discuss these matters and that the relevant qualifications of those quoted were cited.

The press council’s adjudication upheld many of the issues raised in the complaint against the paper, finding it had breached three press guidelines. 

The Australian’s reporting that the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists had abandoned a set of guidelines for trans and gender-diverse children was wrong, the council found.

It also ruled that the articles repeatedly quoting professionals criticising Telfer without making it clear that they weren’t specialists in the relevant area meant that the publication did not take reasonable steps to ensure fairness and balance.

And while acknowledging there is public interest, the council said The Australian did not take reasonable steps to avoid causing distress or prejudice while making a large number of references to Telfer and implying the Gender Service’s treatment was “out of step with mainstream medical opinion”.

The decision also acknowledged that some of the issues raised by Telfer were unable to be resolved as there was “conflict in the research material”. 

The Royal Children’s Hospital noted the press council’s findings in a statement, reaffirming that it stood by the clinic’s work: “The continued campaign has impacted [Tefler], the Gender Service team, our patients and the transgender community. The APC adjudication confirms that media outlets have an obligation to deliver accurate, unbiased reporting on transgender issues.”

Telfer also shared the outcome of the complaint on her personal Twitter. “The truth and the facts matter. They are worth fighting for,” she wrote. 

As it has before, The Australian paired this adverse press council finding with an editorial suggesting the decision was “another example of cancel culture tactics used to stifle debate”.

“We will not shy away from uncomfortable topics that deserve attention,” the author wrote.

This promise is at the very least consistent with the paper’s past behaviour. A study from academics Alexandra García and Joshua Badge this year found that News Corp publications wrote about trans people more than any other Australian media outlet. When looking at a sample of The Australian’s coverage, the authors found more than 90% of articles framed transgender people and issues negatively. 

Badge told Crikey that the press council’s decision was a “small step in the right direction” but still considered it lacking, noting the absence of admonishment for using experts who weren’t practicing in the area, or for causing distress to gender diverse people and their families.

“There’s also very little evidence that suggests the press council advisory guidelines for reporting on LGBT people are effective. Unfortunately, transphobia is fashionable and likely profitable. The result is that news media is deliberately normalising anti-trans attitudes,” they said.