Fairfield City Councillor
Thang Ngo said in recent days he had been contacted by people from various cultural
backgrounds who had been offended by a message posted on the Have Your Say section of
popular website ninemsn.
Carrying the heading "Report Asians and People of Middle
Eastern Appearance to Police", the message urged readers to contact police if they
saw "Asians or people of Middle Eastern appearance" in the street because
"they might just be escapees".
That referred to 46 illegal immigrants who escaped from Sydney's
Villawood detention centre last week.
Cr Ngo said the message was offensive to both migrant and other
Australians and this was illustrated by the fact he was first alerted to the matter by an
Australian of Anglo-Celtic background.
He wrote to ninemsn asking for the message to be removed by 2pm
Tuesday and any other racist postings to also be removed by the end of this week or he
would report the matter to the Human Rights and Equal Opportunities Commission (HREOC).
Ninemsn did not meet the 2pm deadline and Cr Ngo has since reported
the matter to HREOC.
The offending message was later removed from the website.
A spokeswoman for ninemsn said editorial staff were made aware of
the matter just before midday (AEST) today and had removed the offensive material by 3pm,
which was within a three hour time frame.
"When we are alerted to offensive material posted on our
discussion boards we always act promptly to investigate and if appropriate remove material
and inform authorities," she said. |
