Channel Seven Brisbane has been found to have breached the accuracy requirements of the Commercial Television Code of Industry Practice in a report which it broadcast on 20 April.
The Australian Communications and Media Authority said it had investigated a complaint about the report which was about a re-sentencing hearing in the Brisbane district court.
As part of the report, there were remarks from the presiding judge that were critical of the defendant's unnamed lawyers along with images of two people walking. These two were the defendant's lawyers in 2013, not at the time of the hearing.
ACMA said it considered that the lawyers' identity was a material fact in the context of the news report. "Accordingly, because images of the wrong individuals were broadcast, factual material was not broadcast accurately as required by clause 3.3.1 of the Code," it said.
{loadposition sam08}The TV channel said the images of the lawyers were not of the current representatives but added that it was not aware of this at the time the report was aired.
ACMA also found that Channel Seven breached its obligations by not correcting or clarifying this error when it was pointed out by the complainant.
Channel Seven Brisbane undertook to notify its news and current affairs staff of the ACMA decision and "to include reference to the decision in future training courses concerning the Code".