Man wrongly identified as Bondi Junction attacker settles with Seven
By Calum Jaspan
The 20-year-old university student wrongly identified by Seven Network as the Bondi Junction mass murderer has settled his legal dispute with the network for an undisclosed sum.
Benjamin Cohen was identified by Seven’s Sunrise on Sunday, April 14, the morning after six people were murdered in a Sydney shopping centre.
Sydney man Ben Cohen was misidentified as the Bondi Junction killer by the Seven Network.
The full terms of the settlement are confidential, representatives for Cohen said on Friday morning.
A full apology from Seven’s chief executive, Jeff Howard, said the network “accepts the identification was a grave mistake” and the assertions were entirely false and without basis.
His apology explained the process through which Cohen was identified, which included a Seven producer mistakenly believing information relating to a 40-year-old named Benjamin Cohen had been confirmed as correct information regarding the Bondi Junction attacker in the early hours of April 14.
After his name was broadcast at 6.05am and 6.15am, Howard said, the network did not air his name again and made attempts to find a contact number for Cohen, which it did not have until his mother contacted the Seven newsroom.
NSW Police later identified Joel Cauchi as the perpetrator of the Bondi Junction attack. It was several hours after Seven had described Cohen as “40-year-old lone-wolf attacker”.
Howard said Sunrise presenters were “devastated” by the error.
A Seven spokesperson reiterated that it was a mistake to name Cohen as the Bondi Westfield attacker.
“Seven has apologised to Mr Cohen. The parties have reached a settlement on confidential terms.”
A statement from Cohen’s solicitor, Patrick George, said they had been instructed to make representations to the Commissioner of Police concerning those who facilitated the claim of Cohen being identified on social media platform X.
His name appeared on X from about 8.30pm on Saturday and was trending shortly after, with more than 50,000 posts naming him as the unconfirmed killer. Many posts drew attention to his Jewish identity.
A statement from Cohen said: “Users who abuse a platform to target individuals or communities should be held accountable for the consequences of their actions, and platforms should be more accountable for the content they host.”
The settlement and full apology is Howard’s first major action as chief executive of Seven, having taken over from James Warburton last week after a tumultuous period for the broadcaster.
Seven staff members’ efforts to secure a two-part exclusive interview series with former Liberal staffer and rapist Bruce Lehrmann came under intense scrutiny this month during a special hearing as part of Lehrmann’s defamation case against Network 10, which he ultimately lost.
In his email, Howard said he would not hesitate to “move people on” if they were found to be in breach of the “frameworks or expectations of what is considered appropriate” at Seven.
“If poor judgment or unacceptable behaviour persists, or is outside our comfort zone, we will investigate. If necessary, we will have to move people on. The best organisations will do that without fear of retribution by competitors,” Howard said.
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