Brisbane Media: Courier-Mail prejudices attempted murder trial @couriermail

One of the most basic rules of reporting on crime and trials is that we must assume people are innocent until they’ve been proven guilty. Another is that you can’t publish anything that may unfairly influence the result of a trial. Today, the Courier-Mail, Brisbane’s only daily newspaper, has broken both of these rules.

A story published on the Courier-Mail’s website about an incident yesterday, where a man is alleged to have driven a car deliberately at a teenager, follows the rules:

 

However the Courier-Mail also publishes RSS feeds. Simply put, an RSS feed is a way to let you read updates from many different websites in one place – for instance I use Google Reader to catch up with stories from the Courier-Mail, The Australian, The Piping Shrike, Possum’s Pollytics and many other political sites.

So when I opened up Google Reader this morning to check the news, this is what I saw:

 

“Teen victim deliberately run over”, shouts the headline. No “alleged”, not even quote marks so they can pretend someone else said it and they’re just reporting it.

 

Perhaps the Courier-Mail thinks that when they publish something in a feed only read by a couple of hundred people, the rules don’t matter any more. What a pity if one of those people finds themselves on the jury, huh?

Brisbane Roller Derby results, pix: Diner Might Dolls 157 defeated Love Rockettes 113 @NBRrollerderby

The Diner Might Dolls defeated the Love Rockettes 157 - 113 tonight in a Northern Brisbane Rollers bout at the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre.

The Northern Brisbane Rollers are on Twitter and Facebook, and you can click here for the Northern Brisbane Rollers website.

UPDATE: YouTube vid of the bout by texxxann



You can see 20 photos from the bout if you click here.

END UPDATE

Cameraphone pics from the NBR Roller Derby Posterous, taken by Coralie Amato (ferrous) CORRECTION: taken by Twitter user Sendai



Love Rockettes




Diner Mite Dolls




The crowd, reported to be 4 000 people.

Art Exhibition: 100 years of highlights from the University of Queensland Art Collection, Apr 16 - Jul 4 2010

The University of Queensland Art Museum opens a new exhibition tomorrow, Friday April 16 2010: "100 Years: Highlights from the University of Queensland Art Collection"

Some of the artworks that will be in the exhibition are below:



Self-portrait, Mary Christison, c 1870s



Outsider, Gordon Bennett, 1988



Self portrait with a scarf, John Passmore, 1940

The UQ Art Museum is free to visit, and is open from 10am to 4pm every day except public holidays.

Click here for a Google Map showing the location of the University of Queensland Art Museum, including public transport details. You can click here to look up the route 412 bus timetables at the Translink website.

Pro-Choice Benefit Gig, Globe Theatre, Fortitude Valley, Sat April 17 2010

The Pro-Choice Action Collective has organised a benefit gig to support their current campagn for abortion rights in Queensland. The gig is on at the Globe Theatre, 220 Brunswick St, Fortitude Valley on Saturday April 17, and doors open at 7pm.

Bands playing at the benfit gig include:

Pear and the Awkward Orchestra: this is the clip for their song "Fallen Woman"

Anarchist Duck, seen here performing "Hell n Back":

Girl with Cake, playing "Strike the Clock" in this video:

Eden Must Burn, playing at the Step Inn in this video:

Ofa Fanaika, of Chocolate Strings

Tickets are $17.50 including booking fee, or $11.50 for concession card holders including booking fee. You can book here through the Oztix website. You can join the Pro-Choice Action Collective's group here on Facebook, and there's a Facebook event for the benefit gig here.

The benefit gig is at the Globe Theatre, 220 Brunswick St, Fortitude Valley. Click here for a Google Map with public transport details, and you can click here to look up bus route 370, 375 or 379 timetables, or click here to use the public transport journey planner.



NOTE: Abortion is technically illegal in Queensland. The practical result of a 1986 legal ruling by Judge Mcguire in the case of R v Bayliss & Cullen, based on a 1969 ruling in Victoria, is that abortions can be performed to prevent serious danger to the life or health of a pregnant woman. However this could be overturned by another judge's ruling at any time. Right now, a woman in Cairns faces up to seven years in jail for allegedly using a drug to abort her own pregnancy.

QUT Art Museum exhibition: Brisbane artist Dan Brock, until May 16 2010

The QUT Art Museum in town has a new exhibition, showing the work of Brisbane artist Dan Brock. Dan Brock painted the Brunswick Street mural that's directly opposite the entrance to the Valley Metro Mall, the indoor shopping mall that has the entrance to the Fortitude Valley train station.

One of Dan Brock's works from the exhibition


Dan Brock's current work is in a style called "provisonal painting". According to an article in Art in America Magazine by Raphael Rubinstein, provisional painting could be work that's based in skepticism of the idea of fine art, or related to the "amateurish and fucked-up" art and music embraced by the punk movement. Rubinstein also thinks it may have something to with artists rejecting the art market and it's "insatiable appetite for smart, stylish, immaculately executed canvases, paintings that left no doubt as to the artist's technical competence, refined sensibility and solid work ethic".

Another Dan Brock painting from his exhibition


The QUT Art Museum is open at 10am from Tuesday to Friday, shutting at 5pm each night except on Wednesday when it's open till 8pm. On Saturday and Sunday it's open from 12 noon till 4pm, and it's closed on Mondays and public holidays. You can follow the QUT Art Museum on Twitter, or become a fan of theirs on Facebook.

A third Dan Brock painting from the exhibition


Click here for a Google Map showing where the QUT Art Museum is, with public transport details. To look up the free City Loop bus timetable click here (use "loop" as the route number), or you can click here to use the public transport journey planner to look up CityCat timetables.

The Brunswick St mural

Brisbane Roller Derby: Northern Brisbane Rollers Bout 1, April 17 2010, Brisbane Convention Centre @nbrrollerderby

UPDATE: The Diner Might Dolls defeated the Love Rockettes 157 - 113





One of Brisbane's three Roller Derby leagues, Northern Brisbane Rollers, are having their first bout for 2010 this Saturday, April 17 2010, at the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre in South Brisbane. The bout features the Love Rockettes vs the Diner Might Dolls. The doors open at 6.30pm.

This video shows what a 2008 Northern Brisbane Rollers demo bout looked like. It has no sound because a music recording company pulled copyright on it. Morons.

The bout includes entertainment from Miss Teresa and her Rhythmaires, seen in this video singing "You're It":

If you'd like to know more about the rules of Roller Derby, and how the game works, just watch this YouTube video:

You'll be able to buy food, drinks and alcohol at the bout, and there will be EFTPOS and ATMs there. Tickets for Saturday's bout are $16.50 for adults, $12 concession and $7.50 for children - all these prices include booking fees. You can book tickets online at Oztix if you click here. You can follow Northern Brisbane Rollers on Twitter, join their Facebook group, or become their friend on MySpace.

The bout is at the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre, on Merivale St, South Brisbane. Click here for a Google Map with public transport details, and click here to use the Translink journey planner to look up bus and train routes and timetables.

History of the University of Queensland - two lectures this week at the Royal Quensland Historical Society

Photo of the Forgan Smith Building by raguy, released under a Creative Commons Attritbution-Non-Commercial-Share-Alike licence

Two speakers this week will talk about the history of the University of Queensland's St Lucia campus. Speakers at the Royal Queensland Historical Society in the City will talk about the history of the Forgan Smith building (pictured), and how the University moved from the City to St Lucia, where it is now.

Professor Clive Moore will talk about the history of the Forgan Smith building, which is part of the University's Great Court, on Wednesday April 14 at 12.30pm. On Thursday April 15th at 6pm, historian Peter Brown will talk about how and why the University moved to St Lucia in 1950, and the struggle to get it there.




Photo of the Forgan Smith Building by stranezzza, released under a Creative Commons Attritbution-Non-Commercial-Share-Alike licence. The building was named after a former Premier of Queensland.

Both lectures cost $5, which includes refreshments and a light meal. The lectures are at the Royal Queensland Historical Society at 115 WIlliam St, Brisbane City - click here for a Google Map with public transport details. You can click here to look up the timetables for the free City Loop bus (search for route "loop"), and click here to look up other public transport routes and times.