On the 30th of November 2019, The Weekend Australian published an article titled 'Body in freezer Sydney: husband questioned over wife’s death ‘a quiet man’'. It was written by two female journalists -  Deborah Cornwell and Sarah Wei.

The article is available here: https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/body-in-freezer-sydney-husband-questioned-over-wifes-death-a-quiet-man/news-story/c7f3442495cb843e74a00acbcec45745

In the opening paragraph, the main suspect, who is husband of the victim (now in China with the couple's two young children), is described as a 'quietly spoken man' whereas his wife (the victim) is described as 'strong, aggressive and nagging'.

This yet again perpetuates gendered stereotyping and the 'good bloke' rhetoric we see so often in reporting on violence against women in the media.

The implication is that she was so 'nagging' that he was pushed to murder her and store her body in a freezer, before fleeing to China with their children. 

No woman, regardless of their personality or personal circumstances, deserves to be murdered.

Nor did this woman deserve to be characterised in this manner by an unknown source before any kind of criminal proceedings had even begun.

We call on The Weekend Australian to retract this article and report on the facts.

We also invite this media outlet and the authors to join us in the 21st century, where VAW is unacceptable and unjustifiable.