Controversies
In 2004, Gawenda was succeeded as editor by British journalist Andrew Jaspan. Jaspan aroused controversy by initially appearing to not know that The Age was published in Melbourne, sacking Gerard Henderson, a prominent conservative columnist, from the paper and by making remarks critical of Douglas Wood, an Australian who was held hostage and tortured in Iraq. Jaspan accused Wood on ABC radio of being boorish and coarse for speaking harshly about those who kidnapped and tortured him.
The generally left-wing Age is frequently compared with Britain's leftist Guardian newspaper. Henderson, writing in the Murdoch-owned competitor The Australian, is one of many to describe it as "The Guardian on the Yarra".
According to The Guardian newspaper, former Fairfax chief executive Fred Hilmer wrote in his memoirs that "he struggled to cope with a left-leaning editorial culture at papers such as The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, and was surprised that journalists saw themselves as advocates rather than simply reporters." Hilmer said that "Fairfax's default position was to turn left and be agenda-driven... Journalists often conducted campaigns where they persisted in covering stories long after readers had lost interest."
In February 2007, The Age took a prominent role to publicly advocate on behalf of the Free David Hicks campaign (when Hicks was a prisoner at Guantanamo Bay).
In 2009, The Age suspended its columnist Michael Backman after one of his columns condemned Israeli tourists as greedy and badly behaved, prompting criticism that he was anti-semitic. A Press Council complaint against The Age for its handling of the complaints against Backman was dismissed.
Reporting on 19 March 2010 on alleged corruption in religion, The Age claimed that the Vienna Boys Choir “has been caught up in accusations that pedophile priests systematically abused their choristers", even though the complaints were made against teachers and older pupils of the choir, which is a private organisation. Reviewing the matter, journalist Paul Mees in Crikey accused The Age of outright "fabrication".
In 2011, the Sunday Herald Sun's James Campbell revealed an alleged "hacking scandal" involving journalists at The Age who were accused of illegally accessing the computers of a political party. Following a complaint by the Victorian Electoral Commissioner, the suspected journalists, including the editor-in-chief Paul Ramadge, are being investigated by Victoria Police. The journalists are expected to appear before a parliamentary hearing in 2012.
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