It took the effrontery of the Weekend Australian to stir this dormant blogger from his posting slumber. Today’s edition sees them publish a Google Earth image clearly marking the location of Prof. Tim Flannery’s home on the Hawkesbury River, which took me less than 45 seconds to locate in Google Earth and doubtless would take others even less. In their piece, (only the print edition includes the image), journalists Ean Higgins and Anthony Klan mock Flannery’s ownership of a waterfront property in light of his earlier claims that such properties “are in grave danger” from sea-level rise, and his recent statement concerning his property that “there is no chance of it being inundated, short of a collapse of the Greenland Ice Shelf”. Later in the article, they write:
“While his place was, he admitted, “very close to the water”, the issue was how far it was above the water – something Professor Flannery would not reveal because, he said, it could help identify the location and subject him to a Norway-style attack by conservatives.”
So these journalists or their editors, clearly aware (but obviously dismissive) of Prof. Flannery’s expressed concerns about privacy and security, (far from trivial for a public figure who has been so abused by the more extreme blog commenters and whose house is on a publicly accessible waterfront), flagrantly violate the privacy principles of their own newspaper and of the Australian Press Council:
Extract from The Australian’s Privacy Policy:
“We are bound by the National Privacy Principles in the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) in relation to the handling of personal information. Where appropriate we will handle personal information relying on the media exemption (but complying with the Australian Press Council Privacy Standards), related bodies corporate exemption and the employee exemption in the Privacy Act.”
Australian Press Council Privacy Principle 2: Use and disclosure of personal information
“Some personal information, such as addresses or other identifying details, may enable others to intrude on the privacy and safety of individuals who are the subject of news coverage, and their families. To the extent lawful and practicable, a media organisation should only disclose sufficient personal information to identify the persons being reported in the news, so that these risks can be reasonably avoided.”
The irony is, of course, that The Australian has recently been so strident in disavowing any abuses of privacy, as in this piece entitled (double irony) Making a Mockery of Privacy – just last week:
“This comes as the government, urged along by the Greens, has complained about the scrutiny applied to it by News Limited newspapers, including this one. It has used the phone hacking scandal in the British press to attempt to build a political case for tackling supposed abuses of privacy by the Australian media.”
Now Tim Flannery has not always made the most disciplined statements and pointing to his inconsistencies is a reasonable journalistic activity. Disregarding his privacy and security by making the location of his home so public – against his clearly expressed wishes – is, however, unconsionable. Professor Flannery is owed an immediate and public apology.
Flannery deserves an apology after he apologises to Australia for failing to disclose a Conflict of Interest regarding his shareholding in “Geosciences”a company which received a grant of A$90 million for geothermal experimants. Maybe he just forgot to tell Rudd as Kev was writing out the cheque. None of the money has produced one ounce of steam or electricity.
erm, jimmy, that would be a conflict of interest if tim flannery was part of the government or otherwise caused that grant to be made, but he isn’t and he didn’t, so it isn’t. but nice try.
It’s The Australian, what do you expect?
The right just can’t hack not being in power.
dear Jimmy Brooker
i’ve had a google for this company & i must say i can’t find it. even when i added “tim flannery” to the search string mix i still didn’t get anything like a company called “geosciences” or “geosciences australia”. even adding “conflict of interest” i still drew a blank.
i typed “geosciences.com.au” directly into my browser & got nowhere. so i tried typing “geosciences.com” period & got a usa outfit (allegheny-based, good ole boys).
one of the google results i got suggested that there was a “geociences australia” that’s a part of the australian commonwealth gov’t. i even found a link to a radio transcript where some minsister named mar’n ferguson refers to some “geosciences australia” organisation like its a part of a gov’t department or something.
i’ve had enough, i think i’m gonna call you out on a porky, now. unless, of course, you can provide a link, eh.? shouldn’t be hard, ‘case, after all, you’re the guy who knows there actually is a company (australian? you tell me) with that name, that flannery’s a shareholder & that the company got $90Mil from the gov’t (when? that would’ve helped with my searches). you must have got it from somewhere (gosh, i know i couldn’t have made all that up just by myself).
just drop a link (or two?) to it here by return mail.
yours sincerely
alfred venison
Ryan Independent says: Alfred, the company name is actually Geodynamics Limited – it apparently received $90 million in funding from the Rudd Government – I have no information about Prof. Flannery’s interests in the company.
Jimmy, really? He needs to apologize or the security of him and his family is at risk?
dear Ryan Independent
thanks for the clarification – that explains my bizarro-world search results, then. by the way, the gutter press plays this kind of distraction-politics of envy/hate/resentment with david suzuki & his residence in vancouver.
yours sincerely
alfred venison
So this is the old “attack-retract” policy coming out again from News Ltd. Nasty stuff.
Anybody know where Ean Higgins and Anthony Klan live??
Tim Flannery disclosed his ownership of Geodynamics shares in 2007. Cannot find a link but it is mentioned in this Crikey article from 2009.
http://www.crikey.com.au/2009/02/05/flip-flop-flannery-is-a-climate-change-opportunist/
Credit where it's due. | Ryan Independent // Sep 25, 2011 at 10:21 pm
[...] RSS ← The Weekend Australian ignores privacy principles in disclosing the location of Tim Flannery’s… [...]
…. a Norway-style attack by conservatives …?
…. can’t hack not being in power …?
…. apologize or the security of him and his family is at risk (sic) …?
Morbid Denial and Pathological Projection, while definitive of the syndrome and providing handy assists in its diagnosis, are only a couple of the Fascissocialist Psychosis’s many unattractive symptoms.
Even left-wing Crikey attacks Flannery. Now that says it all about his lack of credibility. Journalists should be allowed to ask why someone would suggest that others move away from the coast (thereby deflating the price of waterfront properties), then prompty buys one. This is a small scale version of what was done with Iomega’s share price in the 1990′s – using hearsay to influence public opinion and then taking advantage of it. This is more unethical as the specific identification of the home.
Trish, You missed the point of my post. Nothing you state required the location of his house to be disclosed. The question could have been asked without this. As it turns out, your argument is a furphy. It appears that the house sits up a steep bank and is well above the most radical of projected sea-level rises. http://theconversation.edu.au/bad-tidings-reporting-on-sea-level-rise-in-australia-is-all-washed-up-2639