AUSTRALIA
The Australian
MAY 22, 2015
John Ferguson
Victoria Editor
Melbourne
The Age newspaper was forced to apologise yesterday to Australia’s most powerful Catholic after its Facebook page urged the death of Cardinal George Pell.
For about an hour yesterday the Melbourne newspaper’s Facebook page carried the words: “Die Pell.’’
The Age’s editor-in-chief Andrew Holden apologised, blaming an unknown hacker.
The paper’s Facebook page later contained a prominent retraction but an ugly and defamatory debate continued on the page about the merits of apologising for the offensive remark.
The retraction read: “The Age would like to apologise to readers and Cardinal George Pell for an offensive remark posted on our Facebook page this morning. The post was deleted as soon as staff became aware of the problem.’’ One reader declared: “Why would you apologise to a scheming dirty Catholic priest?’’ Other highly defamatory posts remained on The Age’s Facebook site until well into the afternoon.
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