The Seven network has been found to be in breach of the broadcasting rules on accuracy in news and current affairs for a feature story and its promotion about a death in a religious community in northern NSW.
The Seven report about the Bruderhof community said it was a “little-known religious group originally from the United States who’ve set up an outpost in rural Australia. Little is known about them. But when one of their flock fell ill, the spotlight was shone on the Bruderhof for all the wrong reasons.”
The Australian Communications and Media Authority ruled on Wednesday that it was not accurate to say that the Bruderhof community treated the sick person, Irene Maendel, with prayer and hymns as a substitute for medical care.
The authority also ruled a promotion for the story – which contained a dramatisation using actors playing members of the Bruderhof community praying by her bedside – was misleading.
The promo said: “Playing God ... the cult and their doctor. They prayed for six days, instead of seeking medical help for a dying woman”.
The ruling said: “The Acma considers that the ordinary reasonable viewer would have understood from the statement that the Bruderhof had not provided medical care to Mrs Maendel, and had instead prayed by her bedside.”
However, Seven was found to not be in breach of the code of practice on five other counts, including portraying a group in a negative light by placing gratuitous emphasis on religion.
The Acma stressed that although a medical tribunal inquiry into the death found unsatisfactory professional conduct, it also found the doctor’s actions were not dictated by the church’s beliefs.
The segment, Death of a Believer, was broadcast on the now-defunct Today Tonight program in March 2013 and reported on the death in 2010 of Maendel, who was treated by her son, Dr Christopher Maendel, after suffering a stroke.
Channel Seven has agreed to remove the segment from its website, to provide a link to the Acma’s decision on its website for three months and to include the regulator’s findings in its training materials and courses.
A spokesman for Seven told Guardian Australia it was disappointed with a number of the Acma findings but would fully comply with the ruling.
“While we respect the right of the regulator to form a view on the overall impression conveyed by the story, we took a different view,” the spokesman said.
“At the end of the day a woman died and she did not receive proper medical care. We will continue to broadcast hard-hitting investigative stories in areas like public health that are of significant public interest.”