'We don't need names and faces': push for 48-hour media ban on victims' details

Tabitha Acret has called on politicians to introduce laws requiring all media outlets to wait 48 hours before publishing images or details about murder victims, their grieving families or friends.

In March 2022, her own trauma was compounded when her daughter's image and name were plastered across television screens and newspapers before she could personally inform loved ones about the tragic loss.

And, in light of reporting on victims of last week's Westfield Bondi Junction stabbing attack, Ms Acret said she feels it's more important than ever to ensure families are protected in some of the darkest hours of their lives.

"I had received the phone call at 2am about what had happened [to Mackenzie] but I didn't want my son to travel knowing that information, I wanted to get him into the house to tell him with his dad there as well in a safe space," she said.

"Obviously we have personal experience of this happening to us, not being able to inform our family members in time.

"But in light of what happened in Bondi with families asking people to take photos down and it not happening, with the news going viral and talking to other victim's families, it's a common theme for all of us."

Ms Anderson was stabbed to death at a Crebert Street unit on the night of March 25, 2022.

Her former partner, Tyrone Thompson, has denied murdering the young mother and will face a month-long trial in Newcastle Supreme Court next year.

Ms Acret was out of state with her other child when the news reached her and she rushed home to tell her remaining child in the safety and privacy of her home.

But, once at the airport they were faced with Mackenzie's full name and image splashed across the news.

Family and friends discovered Ms Anderson's death through the media before Ms Acret could reach out to them personally, a premature exposure she says only compounded their trauma.

Ms Acret said her family isn't alone in that experience, arguing countless people have had their grief "exploited" by media outlets who fail to consider the human cost involved.

"We appreciate the coverage, I need that, we need that to maybe get change, but be sensitive of the fact that this is the most horrific way to find that information out about a loved one," she said.

"I don't mind if the incident is reported instantly, but we don't need names and faces."

Her online petition has already garnered 3961 signatures of her 5000 goal.

University of Newcastle researcher and former Newcastle Herald journalist Alysson Watson wrote an article for The Conversation this week analysing whether mining social media profiles of victims and their families is fair game for journalists, following the Bondi stabbings.

She told the Herald delaying publication is one way families might be protected from further trauma, but the question remains about whether journalists should be able to mine social media.

"I think the last week has shown that we need a conversation about media ethics in Australia, not just about naming victims and mining social media, but about the antics exposed in the Bruce Lehrmann defamation trial," she said.

"Because news is so competitive and there are outlets that will do anything to get a story, appealing to ethics won't work.

"Unless the law bans certain behaviours and a regulator enforces it, I don't believe anything will change."

Ms Watson said most journalists prefer to contact families for photos, but only half believe they need consent to take photos from social media.

"They face enormous pressure from their newsrooms and while ever one media outlet is doing it, everyone will do it," she said.

Ms Watson said she admires Ms Acret's perseverance, and said she was a strong advocate for her daughter and families devastated by crime and media reporting.

Journalists are exempt from the Privacy Act "in the course of journalism" and the reproduction of images from social media is permitted "in the public interest", according to the Australian Press Council and the Australian Communications and Media Authority.

The MEAA Code of Ethics urges journalists to respect private grief and personal privacy, and suggests journalists have the right to resist compulsion to intrude.

Ms Acret said a 48-hour waiting period would allow families time to process their loss privately, before being thrown into the spotlight.

"I think we're completely getting forgotten," she said.

"I was watching footage of Bondi and saw traumatised people walking out of that shopping centre having a microphone put in their face, I don't know if it's ethical to interview someone when they're covered in blood or in complete shock, they're not really consenting.

"When people are in such shock and trauma they can't consent and that has to be thought about."

Ms Acret intends to take her petition to local MPs.