A former senior News Limited journalist has described trying to write about human-induced climate change at
The Australian newspaper as “torture” and has blamed the editor-in-chief for limiting coverage on the topic because he has “taken a political view”.
Asa Wahlquist mounted an off-the-cuff defence of environmental reporting on a panel at yesterday’s journalism educators conference in Sydney, explaining the difficulties of having stories published about climate change because of the attitude of and pressure from senior editors at the paper.
Her comments were quickly reported on Twitter, prompting editor-in-chief Chris Mitchell to threaten legal action against the author of the tweets and anyone else who published the “lie”.
As we go to press, a report in
The Australian confirms that Mitchell will sue
Julie Posetti for defamation. The paper reports that Posetti could not be reached for comment.
Mitchell told
Crikey this morning that “any reading of
The Oz’s editorials on climate change would make it clear that for several years the paper has accepted man-made climate change as fact”.
“It has supported market mechanisms to reduce carbon output for the best part of a decade,” he said. “What people do not like is that I publish people such as Bjorn Lomborg. I will continue to do so, but would suggest my environment writer, Graham Lloyd, who is a passionate environmentalist, gets a very good run in the paper.”
Wahlquist, the long-time science and rural affairs writer for
The Australian, accused Mitchell of controlling coverage of climate change because he believes those who subscribe to the “eco-fascist line” that humans have induced climate change are “aiming to destroy everything he loves and values”.
