Injustice ignored
Now to sad news in the Top End.
SAMANTHA DICK: A family's heartache over the death in custody of a young Warlpiri man from Yuendumu now referred to as Kumanjayi White.
NED HARGRAVES: Hear us, this cannot keep going
- ABC News NT, 30 May 2025
Two weeks ago a 24-year-old intellectually disabled Aboriginal man died after being restrained by plain-clothes police in an Alice Springs supermarket.
His awful death was the top story on the ABC's local news that night:
OLIVANA LATHOURIS: … NT Police are investigating, with the Coles supermarket tonight shut to customers and declared a crime scene …
- ABC News NT, 27 May 2025
It remains unclear as to what exactly occurred.
Witnesses told The NT News a police officer had placed his 'knee behind the man's head' even as his friends called out a warning that he had a disability.
The family have demanded the footage of the incident be released while police claim Kumanjayi White had assaulted a security guard who'd caught him caching items in his clothing.
TRAVIS WURST: … the male behaved rather aggressively and was placed onto the ground by those police officers. He was later identified as losing consciousness …
- ABC News NT, 27 May 2025
Kumanjayi White died 70 minutes later.
Across Australia… there had already been 12 Indigenous deaths in custody in just the first five months of this year which is why the ABC has been absolutely right to give this story full-throated coverage, with developments in the case leading the Darwin news night after night as a family mourned and calls for an inquiry gathered pace:
MALARNDIRRI McCARTHY: … an independent investigation may be warranted …
- ABC News NT, 29 May 2025
KYLE DOWLING: Member for Lingiari Marion Scrymgour also joined those calls today calling for Federal police officers to conduct the investigation …
- ABC News NT, 4 June 2025
Meanwhile the despairing and the outraged joined rallies that moved from the top end to capital cities around the country.
The ABC took the issue national, featuring it on its breakfast news program and both SBS and Sky News also recognised this story's importance including in its echoes of another death in custody.
MATT CUNNINGHAM: … the man who was killed last week, or who died last week, is from Yuendumu, the same community where Kumanjayi Walker was shot dead in 2019 …
- NewsDay, Sky News Australia, 2 June 2025
But the millions of Australians who rely on free-to-air commercial TV for their breakfast news and primetime evening bulletins have been left in the dark with not a whisper we could find of Kumanjayi White's brutal passing not on Sunrise not on Today and not on any of the main evening bulletins broadcast by all three commercial networks including Seven News in Melbourne and Ten News in Melbourne.
And why have we singled out Victoria's capital?
Because all last week both Seven and Ten beamed their Melbourne news into the Northern Territory having pulled the plug on their Darwin bulletin and Darwin bureaux years ago.
Channel Nine which extinguished its Darwin bulletin only five months ago also missed the story even though it promised in February that it would:
… retain a reporter and camera operator on the ground to tell the Territory's stories to a national audience.
- Email, Nine spokesperson, 3 February 2025
Now it seems Nine is struggling to fulfil even this meagre commitment because we've confirmed its last staff reporter in the Territory has left and not been replaced.
A spokesperson for Nine told us:
Nine remains committed to finding a viable long-term solution for a news presence in the Northern Territory. As we evolve our business to reflect the commercial realities of newsgathering, we are working through resourcing and hope to have a resolution soon …
- Email, Nine spokesperson, 9 June 2025
But might there be some positive news on the commercial television front?
Because last month Seven announced it was acquiring TV licences from Southern Cross Media across a sweep of regional Australia including for South Australia far western NSW and yes for Darwin.
Although it might also be worth noting that Seven West Media's press announcement contained no mention of any ambition to open new bureaux or tell more local stories.
Instead, its focus was on:
'… our valued advertising partners and media buyers will be able to seamlessly reach and target these new and attractive audiences …'
- Seven West Media Press Release, 6 May 2025
How very heartening.
Over the weekend and after we sent questions to the commercial networks, Seven and Ten developed an interest in Kumanjayi White's death with both networks publishing stories about his passing, the protests it prompted and about yet another Indigenous death in custody again in the NT recorded just 48 hours ago.
On this program we examine poor journalism and lazy journalism but for the very many in the NT who rely on free-to-air commercial news the picture is even more troubling because they're getting very little journalism altogether not even about our most abiding national shame.
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