Ann Garry against the New Zealand Herald

The New Zealand Herald published an article on June 22, 2026, titled ‘Buried’: Gus Lamont’s grandmother’s shock revelation about police theory.

The story is about Gus Lamont who vanished from his family’s station in the South Australian Outback in September last year.  It reported his grandmother, Josie Murray, saying she was the police’s main suspect and that detectives believed she had buried the boy after he was killed in an accident. She denied having anything to do with the boy’s disappearance.

Ann Garry complained the article breached Media Council Principle (1) Accuracy, Fairness and Balance as it omitted a material fact.

She said it was misleading, inaccurate and confusing to present Josie Murray as the boy’s grandmother as “Ms Murray is a transgender woman and is biologically the boy’s grandfather.”

In response the NZ Herald said it was their policy to refer to transgender people by the gender they identify themselves as.

The Media Council does not believe there is evidence to support this complaint.

It has no information to support the claim statement that Josie Murray is transgender, that she was wrongly identified as the boy’s grandmother, or that this information is crucial to the story.

The Council considers the use of pronouns to be a matter of editorial style. Most news media allow people to choose their own gender pronouns or descriptors.

Same gender parents can be baffling to readers if, for example, a child has two dads or mums because a parent has transitioned or if they have used surrogates to have children. It may sometimes mystify readers but for the most part nothing much hangs on it.  

In this case it was totally acceptable, and accurate, to describe the grandparent of the child as his grandmother.

Decision:  No grounds to proceed.