< back to Sandra's blogMisrepresented on channel 10 news!

Yesterday, JBRT founder Sandra Cook was contacted by Channel Ten News in Adelaide to comment on the sentencing of a driver who was drunk and speeding when he hit Margaret Hardy as she was crossing the road in Nailsworth, South Australia. She died in hospital later that night from multiple injuries.

Sandra stressed that she wouldn't comment on the case specifically as she didn't know the people or details, however she could comment generally on the impact of road trauma. It is also not JBRT's role to throw stones at the judicial system. Instead, its role is to support people affected by road trauma.

Channel 10 introduced the news report with the words 'Victim support group attacks sentencing'. This was repeated three times during the 1.5 hour news broadcast.

The founders of the JBRT community have taken great care to ensure that it is a supportive and honouring space. There is nothing aggressive or 'attacking' about this space or its ethos. When interviewed, Sandra took great care to ensure the tone of what she was saying would not be perceived as aggressive - it was certainly not an attack in any way.

Sandra told the reporter, 'In SA sentences are notoriously low compared to other states'. She also said to the reporter, 'For families, small sentences fail to acknowledge their experience'.

Channel Ten edited this to significantly skew what Sandra was trying to say and only broadcast the following:

'In SA sentences are notoriously low, small sentences fail to acknowledge their experience'.

The headline completely misled audiences about the stance taken by Sandra Cook and the organisation she represents.

JBRT is very sorry that they were presented as speaking on behalf of a family who they have never met. It is never our place to do so and we regret that we have been misrepresented.

Written on 25 Oct 2011
Over 8 years since incident
Tags: media

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