Australian tabloid censured for 'final solution' joke

NT News published a text message about the Eurovision referencing the Holocaust.

By AMY SPIRO
Updated: SEPTEMBER 6, 2018 04:17
Israel's Netta arrives for the news conference after winning the Grand Final of Eurovision Song Contest 2018 at the Altice Arena hall in Lisbon, Portugal, May 13, 2018. (photo credit: REUTERS/PEDRO NUNES)
Israel's Netta arrives for the news conference after winning the Grand Final of Eurovision Song Contest 2018 at the Altice Arena hall in Lisbon, Portugal, May 13, 2018.
(photo credit: REUTERS/PEDRO NUNES)
An Australian newspaper was found to have trivialized the Holocaust by publishing a text message after Israel won the Eurovision song contest.
In May, NT News – an Australian tabloid owned by News Corp. – published a message in its “Txt the Editor” column several days after Israel’s Netta Barzilai won the Eurovision. The message read “I am not happy about the Eurovision winner and I would prefer another grand final solution."
In a ruling last week, the Australian Press Council said the message "would be taken by many readers to be a reference to the Holocaust."
“The effect was to trivialize the Holocaust and imply that another holocaust may be a remedy to the author’s displeasure at Israel winning the contest and hosting the next grand final,” the press council wrote. “Whether the language used was the result of poor expression or an ill-advised attempt at humor rather than being deliberately offensive, it was likely to cause substantial offense and distress to readers.”
The council noted that the publication reviews all of the messages before publishing them, and should have understood the offense that would likely be caused.
In its defense, NT News told the council that the message “was not antisemitic and was not a reference to the Holocaust.” The publication claimed that “the reference in the text message was to a ‘grand final solution,’ not the ‘final solution’ phrase with Holocaust connotations.”