Tasmanian Inquirer: The Mercury accused of spiking stadium polling story

Tasmania’s largest circulation newspaper has been accused of axing a planned exclusive story on opinion polling that showed strong public support for the estimated cost of building the Macquarie Point stadium to be revealed to parliament.

Roland Browne, a spokesperson for the anti-stadium group Our Place, told a September 5 media conference that he offered The Mercury an exclusive on the poll results on September 2. He said the paper accepted, with publication scheduled for the Saturday September 5 edition, and a journalist wrote the story, but the paper decided on Friday afternoon not to publish it.