On Saturday Aug 1st, the Age ran a large story about the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute’s centenary which included a photo of my sculpture which commemorates Clunes Mathison, the Institute’s first appointed director. He was killed at Gallipoli before he could take up his appointment.
The Age published the journalist’s and the photographer’s names, but not mine as the sculptor.
The following Monday, I rang the Age and protested about this omission, citing Moral Rights legislation as legally requiring them to publish my name.
The reply was that as the article was not about the sculpture, they had no obligation to publish my name. I countered that the obligation existed regardless of the context if they published a photo of the work. The woman I spoke to had never heard of moral rights law and asked me to email her some information..
I did this and in reply I received an email apologising for her ignorance of the law and its requirements and promising to publish a correction the following Saturday. She also said that she had informed the rest of the editorial dept of these requirements.
This did happen on Aug 8th, with a photo of the work and the statement that the work was done by me.
I thought that this was not just a win for me, but a longer term advance for a major newspaper to understand its obligations under moral rights law.
Michael Meszaros OAM
The Age published the journalist’s and the photographer’s names, but not mine as the sculptor.
The following Monday, I rang the Age and protested about this omission, citing Moral Rights legislation as legally requiring them to publish my name.
The reply was that as the article was not about the sculpture, they had no obligation to publish my name. I countered that the obligation existed regardless of the context if they published a photo of the work. The woman I spoke to had never heard of moral rights law and asked me to email her some information..
I did this and in reply I received an email apologising for her ignorance of the law and its requirements and promising to publish a correction the following Saturday. She also said that she had informed the rest of the editorial dept of these requirements.
This did happen on Aug 8th, with a photo of the work and the statement that the work was done by me.
I thought that this was not just a win for me, but a longer term advance for a major newspaper to understand its obligations under moral rights law.
Michael Meszaros OAM
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