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Three News Corp outlets have issued an apology after using a photo of an Indigenous youth dance group in an unrelated story about child sexual abuse.
Sky News Australia, The Australian and the Daily Telegraph published a photo of Miriki Performing Arts dancers while reporting on Country Liberal Party senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price describing the voting down of a royal commission into the sexual abuse of Indigenous children as "real racism" last October.
The picture was used without permission, and was taken in 2019 of performance Jina's Journey during the annual Cairns Children's Festival.
It depicted the children adorned with body paint designs that were the cultural property of Mandingalbay elder David Mundraby.
Miriki director Pauline Lampton said the image use left the young dancers and their families feeling "disgusted, ashamed and angry".
"These children's images were used nationally in a story about the sexual abuse of children … a story they had no connection to whatsoever," Ms Lampton said in a statement.
"I cannot remember there ever being a time that this occurred with white children, so it makes us feel like the country places less value on our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children."
Solicitor Stewart O'Connell, who is representing Miriki Performing Arts, said the use of images in this manner had "no place in responsible journalism".
"This incident illustrates how media outlets often approach the depiction of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people: with no respect for context or the real people behind the pictures."
The apologies were issued at 7pm on Friday on the organisation's websites and Sky News Facebook and X (formally Twitter) social media pages.
"The report was not related to the children in the image in any way," Sky News said in its apology.
"We did not have the consent of the children or their parents, Miriki or Mr Mundraby to use the image and we unreservedly apologise to them for the hurt and harm that using the image in this way has created."
Mr O'Connell said the timing was "disappointing" — on the Friday of a long weekend — as requests had been made for the apologies to be made earlier in the day or next week.
"We hope that the public apologies will serve as a reminder to all media outlets to think twice as to how they use images of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in their reporting, and put media outlets on notice that there will be consequences if they use such images in a manner that is disrespectful and deplorable," he said.
The ABC understands there has been a confidential settlement reached between the media organisation and the families involved.