The Australian Press Council has ruled on the Sydney Morning Herald’s article which Rebel Wilson claims attempted to “out” her.
In June, Andrew Horney of the SMH, contacted Wilson in regards to her same-sex relationship which was at the time not public knowledge.
Wilson claimed Horney was threatening and gave her two days to respond to his queries.
However, Wilson made her relationship with Ramona Agruma public before Horney could publish his story.
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The article he published, which has since been deleted, argued that Wilson had “opted to gazump the story.”
On October 29th, the APC ruled that the article and the SMH had breached two of its principles.
Firstly, that they are to avoid intruding on a person’s reasonable expectations of privacy, unless doing so is sufficiently in the public interest.
And secondly, to avoid causing or contributing materially to substantial offence, distress or prejudice, or a substantial risk to health or safety, unless doing so is sufficiently in the public interest.
Following the ruling, Rebel Wilson took to Instagram to post a statement.
“Just seeing that the Australian Press Council has condemned the Sydney Morning Herald and their journalists for their recent grubby behaviour in trying to out my same-sex relationship,” read the statement.
“And while I didn’t personally ask for any legal action to be taken, I am glad this has been officially recorded and recognised. Their actions did cause Ramona and I a lot of distress and while we remain classy, there are still pains from having to rush this news publicly which we are dealing with.”
“We move on, focusing on all the absolutely amazing new things in our life though! Sending love to everyone.”
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The Sydney Morning Herald have since written a piece acknowledging their wrongdoing and the ruling, accompanied by an apology from the editor.
