Radio National erodes your security and mine

There is a doctor named Patel, now apparently resident in America, whom the Queensland government wishes to return to Australia, or at least Queensland, to answer certain questions about his practices at Bundaberg Hospital. He has not at this stage been charged with any offence.

Several times recently, in ABC-RN News reports, and RN programs, I have heard this man referred to as "Dr Death". This is yellow journalism of a kind I had not expected to hear on Radio National.

And, of course, it is rather silly as America's heroic Dr Jack Kevorkian is already known universally by that cruel nickname. One would think that the ABC could do better. It's like calling Ned Kelly "Captain Thunderbolt", when we already have a bushranger by that name, Fred Ward who ranged and robbed in the Armidale-Uralla districts. Half-arsed journalism at best.

But far worse is the violation of that 'golden thread' in the justice systems of all Anglophone countries, viz, the presumption of innocence. When taxpayer-funded bodies such as the ABC practise flagrant defiance of this tradition, you, and I, and the staff and management of the Australian Broadcasting Commission, have all had a bit of erosion to our liberties, and an increased likelihood of being some day convicted of a crime we did not commit. A small eroision perhaps, but any amount is unacceptable.

If, in the case of a public figure, such an epithet were used, it might be a different matter. For example, I would welcome the use of the name 'Dr Death' in the case of the Prime Minister, who has participated in the slaughter of between 100,000 and 200,000 people in the Middle East for no discernible reason.

If it might be argued that Dr Patel is a public figure, I might fairly argue back that his celebrity lies partly in the use of unsubstantiated assertions implicit in a derogatory moniker such as 'Dr Death'. His fame, or notoriety, at this stage in no way depends on any evidence proved in a court of law. I would not apply such a standard of proof in the case of a Prime Minister or Hollywood celebrity who has freely chosen to be famous and should expect parody, satire and even unfair criticism -- even if Australia's defamation laws do not agree with this principle that is sensibly respected in the USA.

If reason were to reign in the national broadcaster, in the case of of such breaches of a sane convention, that is, the labelling of an undefended person "Dr Death", the writers and utterers would be disciplined, for the sake of all our freedoms, which the ABC is (I would have thought) chartered to uphold. I would not expect the newsreaders to be brought to book, being only the readers and not the writers of the calumny, but even they should wear some of the culpability as they are under no obligation to erode your human rights for lucre. It is not good enough to plead "I was just doing your job, Your Worship", as was established at Nuremberg.

By the way, in the Wycklow Hotel in Armidale once, I met a girl who claimed to be descended from Thunderbolt. Her friends called her Thunderbreach.