Update: On Monday 23rd March, The Courier-Mail was fined $120,000 for illegally identifying the family involved in this court custody battle.

But let's move the focus to Queensland, and a distressing family court case which has been dominating the headlines for months - and to the disturbing role the mainstream media has played in it.

The case had been before the Family Court for a year, with very little publicity, until the Brisbane Courier-Mail weighed in on May 12th this year:

Court rips daughters away from mother Tuck Thompson A Sunshine Coast family is being ripped apart by a Family Court ruling that is forcing four young girls on to a flight to Italy to live with a father they describe as a physically abusive workaholic. — Courier Mail, 12th May, 2012

Ripper of a lead par, eh? So balanced, so sensitive. The story was completely one-sided: it quoted the children making allegations of violent abuse by the father, and gave a distorted impression of the facts of the case. For example:

Their mother, 32, secretly escaped from her marriage to the Italian man two years ago. They have not seen him since. — Courier Mail, 12th May, 2012

The facts are that the mother had separated from the father in 2007, and an Italian court had given her shared custody of the children. Three years later, the Family Court of Australia has found, the mother obtained the father's consent to bring the girls to Australia on holiday for a month. She then refused to return. That was in June 2010. The father has been trying to get them back ever since.

But the story obviously played well with the Courier-Mail's readers. Three days later came this extraordinary front page.

Sisters on the run — Courier Mail, 15th May, 2012

To escape being sent back to Italy, the girls were being hidden by a family member. What is extraordinary is that the Courier-Mail printed photographs on its front page, and named, all four girls. We've blurred the images and the names.

On the face of it, the Courier-Mail was in blatant breach of one of the best-known legal restrictions in journalism. As the Chief Justice of the Family Court put it in an unusual statement to Media Watch :

Section 121 of the Family Law Act restricts publication of court proceedings that identify parties and witnesses involved in family law. ...it was extremely disappointing to see that the Courier Mail chose to publish the names and photographs of the mother and children involved in this case. — Diana Bryant, Chief Justice of Family Court, 12th October, 2012

Not once, but twice. The next day, another front page, another photograph of the children, another manipulative story ...

Dad, Please let us stay — Courier Mail, 16th May, 2012

A letter from one of the children to her father, on the front page, with the same picture.

As a retired family court judge wrote in an excoriating op-ed in The Australian :

In my 20 years as a judge on the Family Court of Australia...I have never before witnessed such irresponsible and harmful reporting of children's matters before a court. — The Australian Online, 21st May, 2012

The Chief Justice tells Media Watch that...

In May I wrote to the Attorney-General to bring to her attention the two reports that appeared in the Courier Mail for consideration of whether a prosecution be launched. — Diana Bryant, Chief Justice of Family Court, 12th October, 2012

As both The Australian and Fairfax Media's Brisbane Times - though not the Courier-Mail - reported on the 24th of May ...

The Australian Federal Police is assessing whether to investigate The Courier-Mail ... — Brisbane Times, 24th May, 2012

Five months on the AFP tells Media Watch it is still investigating. Not surprisingly, The Courier-Mail has declined to comment .

But the paper's stories opened the media floodgates. As the girl's grandmother told Media Watch...

I've been ringing the media for two years about this trying to get them to cover it ... Tuck Thompson was the first person to take any notice and realise the truth in what we have been saying. — Grandmother of four sisters, statement to Media Watch, 11th October, 2012

Suddenly, everyone was taking notice.

Seven's Sunrise, for example, aired a video appeal by the girls themselves, before Michelle Tapper interviewed the mother...

Michelle Tapper: It's a last minute plea from a desperate Mum who'll do anything to keep her four daughters living in Australia. Mother: Begging for someone ... have the girls' voice listened to, which is their right. Not have their human rights violated by being dragged onto an aeroplane, handcuffed, screaming. — Channel Seven, Sunrise, 16th May, 2012

Prophetic words. Since May, with the eager cooperation of the girls' Australian family, the media has returned to the story again and again as it wound its way through the legal process.

The girls have twice been given the chance to put their case to a Family Court counsellor. The mother has had her say in court. But the judge found that she'd taken the girls to live in Australia without their father's consent. International law says they must be returned. Twelve days ago, Seven News witnessed the girls fulfilling their mother's prophesy...

Samantha Armytage: And a warning, some viewers may find these pictures distressing. — Channel Seven, News, 4th October, 2012

Distressing they certainly were.

Georgina McKerrow: As one daughter is driven away, the next is being taken from the home. Mum turns, and runs... — Channel Seven, News, 4th October, 2012

But worse was to come. The Australian media followed the girls back to Italy. When Nine News arrived outside the father's villa. Sophie Walsh reported, the two older sisters rushed out of the house, calling for help.

Sophie Walsh: With tears running down her cheeks, one of the sisters grabbed hold of me saying she was scared she was going to be hurt and needed to be taken away. The eldest daughter was eventually dragged inside as her sister cried for their mum. The voice bringing them to tears. (Mother on phone): It'll be ok, come on baby be strong please ... — Channel Nine, News, 7th October, 2012

That's right. Sophie Walsh has the girl's mother on her mobile phone. Talk about a reporter becoming an active participant in a story.

It may well be worse than that. In one of several live crosses from Italy to Weekend Today, Walsh explained her relationship with the girl's mother ...

Cameron Williams: Have you heard from the girl's mum? Sophie Walsh: Yeah I have, look I've been in constant contact with her since I've been over here.... — Channel Nine, Weekend Today, 7th October, 2012

She's been in constant contact. And when they arrived at the father's villa, Sophie explained...

Sophie Walsh: The girls knew that we were there, and I think really they just seized the opportunity to try and escape, they came sprinting across the front lawn and through the gate. — Channel Nine, Weekend Today, 7th October, 2012

The girls knew they were there? We wondered how? Here's what the father's lawyer told the ABC's The World Today ...

Paul Donnelly: Apparently one of the older girls had a mobile phone, she made a call to Australia, she received a call back, with that her and her sister then ran out of the front yard of the villa, pleading for the press to help them. — ABC Radio, World Today, 8th October, 2012

It f that's true - and it may not be - it gives rise to the suspicion that Walsh told the mother that she was outside the villa, and someone in Australia then told the girls. Sophie Walsh goes on...

Sophie Walsh: One of the things the girls were saying to me was "we want to speak to our mum", so I managed to get her on the phone I got her on speaker phone, there was obviously a big commotion the girls couldn't hear her too well but what she did say, she said "girls I love you, please stay strong I am doing everything in my power to try and bring you home". — Channel Nine, Weekend Today, 7th October, 2012

It's amazing isn't it? As with any such story, there are two versions of almost every aspect of the case. The Family Court has heard, and weighed, both sides. The public, through the media, has overwhelmingly heard just one.

We asked Nine whether it had told the mother's family that its crew was outside the villa. We got no response. But as Sophie Walsh says...

Sophie Walsh: Given what we've seen today it would seem this case still has a very long way to go until it is resolved. — Channel Nine, Weekend Today, 7th October, 2012

...with the Australian media, helped by the mother, milking every extra day of these children's distress. Frankly, it's a disgrace.

Read more, and leave your comments, on our website. Until next week, goodnight