The minimal attention given by The Australian and Crikey to the censoring of copy about James Packer’s girlfriend in TheSydney Morning Herald‘sfinance pages does not do justice to the watershed nature of this incident.

This
is the first clear-cut example of Fairfax’s editorial management going
out of its way to appease Packer interests. While there is no smoking
gun evidence that Ron Walker had anything to do with this outrageous
case of editorial interference, there is certainly the strong
perception that Fairfax under Walker’s chairmanship is now prepared to
censor journalists so as not to upset the Packers.

That
perception is sufficient grounds for Walker to be unfit to occupy the
chair, unless he publicly distances himself from the gag order on the SMH finance
journos. If Walker wants to retain any credibility, he should publicly
declare he had nothing to do with the direction to journalists not to
make any mention of James Packer’s girlfriend.

It could be a
case of Oakley engaging in self-censorship, but we’ll never know unless
Ron makes it clear where he stands. If Walker doesn’t distance himself
from Oakley’s directive, the public will be entitled to draw the
conclusion that Ron’s presence as chairman did play a part in this
spineless and ham-fisted exercise in censorship.

As US
correspondent for the Nine Network, I was in Las Vegas in 1991 when
Jeff Fenech was about to fight Azuma Nelson. We had our camera set up
to shoot the official weigh in when Fenech arrived accompanied by his
then best friend Jamie Packer. Packer looked in my direction and then
pointed at our camera, making a gesture indicating he didn’t want to be
filmed, which was a bit difficult for us considering he was standing
right next to the subject of our story.

As politely as I
could, I pointed out to him if he didn’t want to be on camera he would
have to get out of our frame. It was an early indication of how
sensitive James is about his privacy. It also showed that, just like
Dad, he had no qualms about directly interfering in the work of the
empire’s news gatherers.

Before the weigh in, I’d already got
into trouble from my boss in Sydney for correctly pointing out to our
viewers that Fenech was treated like a complete nobody in Vegas. I got
the clear impression that my boss was desperately worried about
upsetting a friend of the Packers. As it turned out the less-than-VIP
treatment Fenech received by the likes of Don King was something he
loudly complained about in an interview with me after his hugely
controversial bout with Nelson.

Readers might remember that,
amid howls of protest, the judges declared the fight a draw despite
Fenech’s clearly superior performance on the night. The outrageous and
highly suspicious result was consistent with the poor treatment Fenech
had received all the time he was in Las Vegas. But having accurately
reported the situation didn’t endear me to my boss who was more
concerned about maintaining the perception that Fenech was a world
class Aussie sporting hero. Pointing out he was treated like a nobody
didn’t conform to Nine’s myopic world view.

If media outlets like Crikey
don’t give greater attention to attempts at media censorship they will
become so commonplace that we will all start thinking it’s perfectly
normal to tailor our copy to placate the Packers. So far only people
who work at Channel 9 and ACP have to live like that.