Liz Jackson meets the Corby′s

THIS week (30 May) Liz Jackson's Media Watch switched onto the Schapelle Corby trial. It stuck the boot into much of the media for conducting its own "trial of the Indonesians' justice system".

Radio and television stations with an "in" to the Corby camp had whipped up anti-Indonesian sentiment on the premise that Corby was innocent. Those from rival outlets talked about being black banned by the Corby camp, leading some - like John Laws - to be more sceptical and negative.

Then Jackson slotted in a dig at The Australian. "And he (Laws) was not the only one. As the verdict countdown began, The Weekend Australian ran this front page story."

A headline from page one of The Weekend Australian of 21-22 May was shown on screen: "Meet the Corby's: A Dad with a drug record, a brother in jail, and a former bankrupt who wants 50 per cent of the action".

Jackson continued: "Why was this a front page story? Corby's father was fined 30 years ago, for possessing marijuana, her half brother is doing time for break and enter. None of this was remotely relevant to Corby's case. It was just a punch below the belt to sell a lot of papers".

Now, The Australian doesn't really care about Jackson's opinions on this. She doesn't point to any errors in The Weekend Australian's coverage. And we happily plead guilty of trying to sell newspapers.

But Media Watch viewers deserve a more sophisticed interpretation of The Weekend Australian's coverage of the Corby trial than they got from the program.

Clearly, the Corby trial and her eventual guilty verdict has gripped the imagination of the Australian public. As the Media Watch program touched on, much of this has been fuelled by an apparently deliberate strategy by Corby's supposed financial backer, businessman Ron Bakir, to media-manage public sympathy for Corby, in part by striking deals with selected media outlets.

The deeper issue, not fully grasped by Media Watch, is whether this has been in Corby's own legal interest and whether it has inflamed anti-Indonesian sentiment in Australia. The legitimate story is just how has this happened.

This is the sub-text of the "Meet the Corby's" front page article in The Weekend Australian and written by journalists Jennifer Sexton, Greg Roberts and Cath Hart. Like her predecessor, David Marr, Jackson is a trained lawyer who sees the issue in legal terms. Hence Jackson's complaint that the article was not "remotely relevant" to Corby's case.

But in journalistic terms, it is completely valid to explore the backgrounds of the family and the supposed financial backer at the centre of a story of intense public interest. To repeat, this is a legitimate journalistic approach - and normal fare for quality US newspapers with high-profile trials - and serves to separate fact from the wild gossip that Jackson complains has been swirling around the Corby's.

The "Meet the Corby's" article followed an interview with Corby's sister, Mercedes, on the Nine network's Sunday program.

Question: "Is there anybody in your family, a stepfather, a distant relative ? Is there anybody who's ever been convicted or involved in the drugs trade?"

Mercedes Corby: "No. Not that I know of. Nah. There wouldn't be."

The "Meet the Corby's" article in The Weekend Australian revealed that, whether Mercedes knew it or not, this is not true. The sisters' father, Michael Corby, was caught with a small amount of cannabis at a similar age to 27-year-old Schapelle. And, like Schapelle, Michael Corby claimed the marijuana "wasn't mine".

The article further revealed that Schapelle's half-brother, Clinton Rose, was currently serving a sentence in a Queensland jaul for break and enter, stealing and fraud and had been visited by both Corby sisters during a previous stint in jail. (In the week after this article, The Australian revealed that Rose had twice been convicted on marijuana possession charges).

The "Meet the Corby's" article then went into some detail into Ron Bakir, reporting that tensions had emerged in the Corby family over his bid to get 50 per cent of proceeeds from likely book and film deals arising from Schapelle's ordeal. It further reported that Bakir was a discharged bankrupt who had left creditors to his Crazy Ron's mobile phone business being owed $2.26 million. Creditors included a charity for troubled teenage boys.

Media Watch was right to claim that these facts were not relevant to the issue of whether Schapelle Corby was legally guilty of attempting to smuggle 4.1kg of marijuana into Bali. But Jackson was wrong to suggest that the facts do not provide material for a legitimate story and valid journalism.

Moreover, The Weekend Australian did not claim or infer that "Meet the Corby's" was about the legal issue of guilt or innocence. That issue was fully covered separately in the same issue of The Weekend Australian. For some reason, Jackson didn't point Media Watch viewers to Sian Powell's "The Case Against Our Schapelle", the cover story on that weekend's Inquirer section.

If she had, Jackson could have pointed to the prescient conclusion by Powell, The Australian's Jakarta correspondent: "Indonesia is notoriously corrupt, routinely languishing at the bottom of international corruption indexes. The judicial system, too, undoubtably has rotten elements, especially in connection with large civil cases. But no charges of corruption have been levelled against the three judges in Corby's case, who have listened gravely and courteously to all the witnesses and allowed the defence to submit last-minute documents. On the known evidence, it's almost certain they will find Corby guilty when they hand down their verdict next Friday, and on past history it's likely they will sentence her to a lengthy jail term. Indonesia has tougher drugs penalties than Australia, up to and including death. Perhaps it's the sentencing disparity that has galvanised so many Australians rather than the question of whether she has been justly tried. (Chief judge) Sirait has dubbed her trial 'ordinary'; yet it's one that has provoked an extraordinary reaction in Australia, a reaction that is likely to roll on for some time."

But pointing to this article - perhaps the best published summary of the case - would have diluted Liz Jackson's attempt to paint The Australian as just a participant in "destructive media games" over Schapelle Corby