Corporate Responsibility And Governance For Financial Review

The Australian Financial Review

Discuss about the Corporate Responsibility and Governance for Financial Review.

In Australia, The Australian Financial Review (AFR) for more than 50 years has dominated finance, business and investment news. The main target group of AFR is investor and business community. It has a status of award-winning and independent journalism. The status of AFR as an independent newspaper reflects the fact that it strives to provide the audience with unbiased news. The statues further reflect the success of the effort on the part of the newspaper. It makes constant effort to meet the needs and adapt according to the requirement of the readers with the help of innovative sections and features. The implementation of the innovative features and sections can be seen from segregation of sections like Life & Leisure, Rear Window, Specialist investment etc.  It is mentionable here that personal investors and eminent business professionals are the major target group of the newspaper (Afr, 2016). Due to the agenda setting, news-breaking and authoritative journalism, ARF has become a national institute and extensively regarded as Australia’s premium finance, business and political publication. Its combined digital and print readership is 1.46 million.

The multi-award winning columnist and senior business writer Adele Ferguson is the journalist of the article 7/11 fraud. She has been associated with number of newspapers The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age. However, in terms of association with AFR, she is associated as business columnist. She has won number of awards, which includes three Walkley awards (Adeleferguson, 2015).

In the context of the article of 7/11 fraud, her emphasis was on taxation from the audience perspective. With the help of the article, the eminent columnist made effort to state that international students are not being provided with justice and also highlighted upon the payroll issue. However, it is also observable that, in terms of the huge tax that the Australian department was supposed to receive was being deprived off is also another dimension of the edifice of the article.  Bias free and fair representation of the vital quality a journalist is required to posses. In the context of the representation of the provided information and the article, the presence of the element of fairness can be noticed from the fact that the fraud was effective highlighted upon by the journalist, otherwise the incident would remain unnoticed and such a practice would have been continued. Authentication of the provided facts and figures is essential duty on the part of a journalist. In order to provide the readers with authentic data from the Fair Work Ombudsman investigation the information are provided in the article. The investigation stated that, by breaching taxation and exploiting international student 7/11 committed a fraud, which is in turn reflected in the article. This provided the article with authentication. However, there are some elements present in the article which needs to be mentioned. The article title reflected that 7/11 had committed the fraud, here as the elaboration of the article stated that the investigation is still under progress on the part of Fair Work is regards to the involvement on the part of the 7/11 in the fraud. In journalism this kind of act is ethically wrong. Moreover, the facts do not strongly indicate or establish the involvement 7/11 in the fraud, this not only results in negatively impacting the image of organization but the newspaper at the same time. This is also improper behavior on the part of the journalism behavior. Here misrepresentation of the fact occurred which is completely against journalistic ethic. Providing with one side of the story and incomplete data further establishes the fact. A journalist is also responsible for effective governance, which makes it necessary on the part of the journalist to be accountable for the writing and providing the information of the institutes and organizations in a dignified manner. However, the use of the words like theft negatively impacts the image of the organization, under good governance a journalist is abstained from doing so.

The Australian Newspaper

The Australian, a daily newspaper is owned by News Corp Australia. In terms of global, national and business journalism it is one of the leading newspaper. Leading and promoting independent thinking that acts as contributing factor for the development of the country and business environment of the nation is the main aim of the newspaper since 1964 (Newscorpaustralia, 2016). In the aspect of media innovation it is a globally recognized newspaper. The educated, influential, wealthy and powerful audience is the target group of the newspaper. Along with providing breaking stories it challenges government associates complex events, which in turn impacts the entire nation to a large extent. 3,131,000 is the total readership of the newspaper. Rachel Baxendale is the writer of the article (Newscorpaustralia, 2016).

The presence of good governance and following the ethical dimension is vital in any news article, which can be seen to be present in this article. It is reflected with the help of the title “The buck stops with us” that signifies that the liability for the incident in the organization is taken by the head of 7/11, which reflects the presence of the ethical element and effective governance. It needs to be mentioned here that by providing statement of the chairman of 7/11 that employees will be paid balanced wage resulted in not only creating a positive image but also reflects the presence of good governance. The fact that the article of The Australian Financial Review lacked the presence of the elements associated with ethical element and effective governance resulted in condemning the article proves the strong-decision making aspect of the heads of the Australian. However, it is mentionable here that, there was lack of independent writing which could be seen from the fact that rather than making effort in exploring the main reasons that resulted in the occurrence of the issue, the journalists down played the problem and made effort to cover up the scenario. This also reflects the absence of freedom of expression of the journalist and being ethically weak. With the help of providing the aspects in the article like the new wage system resulted in selling of stores on the part of the franchisee shows effort of covering up and restricted writing on the part of the journalist. It further highlights upon the effort on the part of the journalist to provide the readers with sympathy and offer with protection to the brand name of 7/11. It also requires to be mentioned here that emphasis on the presented facts results in lack of authentication of the authentication. 

The effort of concealing of facts on the part of the journalist also indicates to the influence of the            interest of the stakeholders on the facts provided by the newspaper. The presence of the apologies of the chairman of 7/11 in the article reflects upon the biasness of the article and influence of the interest of the stakeholders. However, there are some major flaws present in the article which are also required to be mentioned. The fact that the article do not consist any information regarding fair work and tax fraud the article’s one of the major loopholes. Only the interest of the readers and the enhancement is served upon by the provided information rather than highlighting upon the social interest is a mentionable ethical issue of the article. It is also mentionable that, this article reports FWO misconduct rather than supporting its investing is also its loophole and indicating the influence of the stakeholders on the provided information. Most importantly in order to have good governance it is also required to have freedom of expression of media, that can be seen to be absent in the article.

Conclusion

In the conclusion, it can be stated that the two articles have completely diverse perspective towards the incident of 7/11 fraud. On one side, The Australian Newspaper was having a sympathetic approach towards the scenario and made effort to cover up the issue present in it. While The Australian Financial Review brought out the issues in a very prominent manner and provided relevant support to it. The Australian Financial Review, in this effort, supported FWO investigation (Ferguson, 2015), The Australian Newspaper on the contrary reported FWO misconduct. However the effort of being ethically strong was present in both the article that is the common ground of the two articles.

References

adcentre.com.au. (2016). Financial Review. [online] Available at: https://www.adcentre.com.au/wp-content/uploads/Financial-Review-Media-Kit.pdf [Accessed 13 Sep. 2016].

Adeleferguson.com. (2015). Adele Ferguson – Journalist & Author. [online] Available at: https://www.adeleferguson.com/ [Accessed 13 Sep. 2016].

Afr.com. (2016). AFR About us: ABOUT THE FINANCIAL REVIEW. [online] Available at: https://www.afr.com/about-us [Accessed 14 Sep. 2016].

Ferguson, A. (2015). 7-Eleven wage abuse scandal has lessons for all directors. [online] Available at: https://www.afr.com/business/retail/7eleven-wage-abuse-scandal-has-lessons-for-all-directors-20151004-gk0rhp# [Accessed 13 Sep. 2016].

Newscorpaustralia.com. (2016). Advertise with The Australian newspaper and digital editions. [online] Available at: https://www.newscorpaustralia.com/brand/australian [Accessed 13 Sep. 2016].