I am the mother of the beautiful Molly Lord who was killed on a quad bike last week. I would just like to let everyone know of the pain and harassment we suffered as a result of channel 7... — Channel Seven News, Facebook page, 21st July, 2012

Welcome to Media Watch, I'm Jonathan Holmes, and no jokey start this week. Our main item concerns something too tragic, and too serious

It was on the Saturday before last that that message was posted on Seven News's Facebook Page by Mrs Linda Goldspink-Lord .

A few angry sentences later, it ended...

You bastards. — Channel Seven News, Facebook page, 21st July, 2012

The post was dynamite. Within 36 hours it had caused a social media storm:

32,008 others like this — Channel Seven News, Facebook page, 21st July, 2012

On the Sunday evening, the video that had caused Mrs Lord such pain was taken down from Seven's website. But so was her post from its Facebook page - and that, of course, just made matters worse for Seven News.

Channel 7 you really are a bunch of grubby exploitative unethical low lives... Big mistake to delete the post by Molly Lord's mother...Disgusting Channel 7. — Channel Seven News, Facebook page, 22nd July, 2012

And literally hundreds more. On Monday morning, with the story all over the mainstream media, Seven's Sydney News Director, Chris Willis, posted an apology. Mrs Lord's comments, he wrote...

... were removed from our site in error. We apologise for that. Taking into account her understandable distress over the coverage of Molly's death, I did ask for the footage to be taken down. That happened but unfortunately her remarks were deleted as well. They are now being restored to our Facebook page. — Channel Seven News, Facebook page, 23rd July, 2012

The power of social media to hold them accountable is a phenomenon that mainstream media outlets are only beginning to come to terms with. But in tonight's program, we're going to focus on who did what that tragic afternoon.

And a warning - with the knowledge and permission of the family, we're going to be showing photographs and video which they, and their friends, found deeply distressing when they were first published. On Iview, and on our website, at their request, the most sensitive images will be obscured.

First, here are some pictures they did want us to show: young Molly Lord as her family want her to be remembered

So what happened on the day Molly died? At 1.46 pm on Wednesday the 11th of July, the New South Wales police media unit issued a release:

Teenage girl killed in quad biking accident - Kembla Grange — NSW Police Media Release, 11th July, 2012

Read the NSW Police Media Release

Seven News in Sydney reacted swiftly. Reporter Paul Kadak, a camera crew and a links truck were sent to the property near Wollongong, a bit over an hour's drive south.

And Seven's helicopter was despatched to the scene. It arrived over the Lord family's property, Newton Park, at 2.40pm.

The cameraman on board filmed these pictures of Molly's body, covered by a white sheet, still on the ground. Seven News says its helicopter never descended below 500 metres and was overhead for about eight minutes.

Nevertheless, Mrs Lord was deeply upset by the intrusion. In her first post on Seven's Facebook page, she wrote...

I went outside at some point to go to her horse for some comfort when the channel 7 helicopter flew above me ... footage of myself sitting with my deceased daughter was put on the channel 7 website for the world to see before I had even told all my family. — Channel Seven, News, Facebook page, 21st July, 2012

In his post on Seven News's Facebook page last Monday, Director of News Chris Willis, wrote:

we have re-examined our reports into Molly's tragic death and can find no video showing Ms Goldspink-Lord hugging her daughter. — Channel Seven, News, Facebook page, 23rd July, 2012

We're satisfied that Seven News neither shot nor posted video of Linda Lord, with her daughter or on her own. As we'll see later, that footage was aired on another channel. But as Mrs Lord told Media Watch last week...

The helicopter was so intrusive. ...Even if they didn't have footage of me sitting with Molly, they still had footage of Molly and they shouldn't have been there at all. — Linda Goldspink-Lord, 24th July, 2012

Seven News tells us it covered the story as thoroughly as it did because it wasn't just a family tragedy. The police media release had raised issues of wider importance, summarised by Paul Kadak in his live cross at 4.30 that afternoon...

PAUL KADAK: ...police putting out a reminder that these vehicles, these quadbikes, are not toys, urging parents to make sure that their children are properly supervised and wearing the correct safety gear, like helmets. — Channel Seven, News, 11th July, 2012

But that warning could surely have been read by a newsreader in the studio. Why the helicopter footage, we asked. Chris Willis didn't really tell us, but I'll tell you: because for a television news item to last more than a few seconds, it needs pictures. Mr Willis did write this:

We accept the point that Mrs Goldspink-Lord was distressed by the helicopter's presence and sincerely regret that. — Chris Willis, Seven Director of News, Sydney 27th July, 2012

Read Chris Willis's full response to Media Watch's questions

But that distress was utterly predictable, Chris. A helicopter hovering overhead at such a time is bound to be intrusive. Mrs Lord is right. It shouldn't have been there at all.

There are more issues in dispute between the Lord family and Seven News than we have time to deal with here. We have statements from the family and their friends on our website, together with Seven News's full response. At least, to their credit, Seven did answer our questions. Have a read, and judge for yourselves.

But the real intrusion that day, worse, in my view, than anything Seven News did, was by the local paper, Fairfax Media's Illawarra Mercury, and the local news service that airs in the region on Channel 9, WIN News.

Soon after the air ambulance had landed at Newton Park, just twenty minutes after the accident occurred, while frantic efforts to revive Molly Lord were still going on, family friend Paul Dopper noticed a photographer on the Lord family property...

He was parked behind the rescue helicopter, standing behind the driver-side door of his car. — Paul Dopper, 25th July, 2012

The police also noticed the photographer, but everyone was too busy to ask him to leave. This was long before Seven's helicopter arrived.

Paul Dopper continues...

I can only assume that he was from the Illawarra Mercury because he was the only one close enough to get the ground shot that was published in the newspaper the next day. — Paul Dopper, 25th July, 2012

That afternoon, a reporter from the Illawarra Mercury contacted Molly's father, Peter Lord, who was in Hong Kong, frantically trying to get home. He tells Media Watch...

I basically said that the family wasn't ready to say anything yet, and I said, 'Look, don't make a song and dance about Molly's death and please don't put it on the front page'. — Peter Lord, 23rd July, 2012

A waste of breath. This was the Illawarra Mercury's front page the next morning...

Holiday Tragedy Girl, 13, dies in Kembla Grange quad bike accident — Illawarra Mercury, 12th July, 2012

And there is a picture of the scene, with two grieving women prominently featured.

On page two, a worse intrusion - this picture...

A woman is comforted at the scene of the accident yesterday. Picture: Orlando Chiodo. — Illawarra Mercury, 12th July, 2012

The 'woman' is Molly's mother, Linda Goldspink-Lord. Her daughter's legs are protruding from the sheet that covers her.

In the accompanying report, Molly Lord and her younger sister were named for the first time in the mainstream media, without their parents' permission...

Peter Lord has told Media Watch:

It's an extremely personal moment and that photo has gone online. Our friends and family saw it and it caused them so much distress. A lot of them, we didn't even have the opportunity to make a phone call to them to tell them what had happened. — Peter Lord, 23rd July, 2012

We sent a series of questions to the Illawarra Mercury. Its editor replied:

We have been formally advised by lawyers acting for the Lord family that they are about to commence legal proceedings over the article. Consequently, I am under legal advice not to comment at this stage. — Alistair Langford-Wilson, Editor, Illawarra Mercury, 26th July, 2012

Read Alistair Langford-Wilson's response to Media Watch's questions

Well, here's my comment. Whatever the law may say, whoever decided to put that picture in the paper, and the story on the front page, despite Peter Lord's request not to, needs to ask themselves the first question posed in Fairfax's Code of Conduct:

Would I be proud of what I have done? — Fairfax Code of Conduct

Read the Fairfax Code of Conduct

And that leaves us with WIN News, which has so far been untouched by the social media barrage that's descended on Seven.

ANNOUNCER: This is WIN News — WIN News, 11th July, 2012

It was WIN, not Seven, that aired this shot of Mrs Lord sitting beside her daughter in its 6.30 bulletin that Wednesday evening.

Because, as they put it...

this matter could be the subject of legal proceedings — Stewart Richmond, Network Director of News, WIN TV, 27th July, 2012

Read Stewart Richmonds response to Media Watch's questions

...WIN declined to answer our detailed questions, telling us instead that:

WIN's coverage did not identify individuals and was taken from a respectful distance. — Stewart Richmond, Network Director of News, WIN TV, 27th July, 2012

And that it

believes that its reporting team complied with the Commercial TV Code of Practice. — Stewart Richmond, Network Director of News, WIN TV, 27th July, 2012

...which says that licensees...

must exercise sensitivity in broadcasting images of... bereaved relatives and survivors or witnesses of traumatic incidents — Commercial Television Code of Practice

Read the Commercial Television Code of Practice

You can be sure that so far as Mr and Mrs Lord are concerned, airing that shot was neither sensitive nor respectful. And they don't intend to let the matter lie. They're looking at taking legal action against some or all of Seven, WIN and the Illawarra Mercury. Peter Lord told us...

We want a change to the legislation or the code of conduct to remove the ambiguity surrounding the media's intrusion on grieving families. — Peter Lord, 23rd July, 2012

Frankly, I doubt that the law can be made unambiguous. But The Media Alliance's Code of Ethics is plain enough:

Respect private grief and personal privacy. Journalists have the right to resist compulsion to intrude. — MEAA Code of Ethics

Read the Media Alliance Code of Ethics

It's up to individual reporters and photographers to make a stand, their own union says. How realistic that is, especially at a time when jobs in the media are scarce and precious, is another matter.

Additional information: other matters of disagreement between the Lord family and friends, and Seven News Sydney