Meeting Terry Hicks
11:03pm Wednesday, Aug 15, 2007 |
Although it probably seems like a lifetime ago to Terry Hicks, he was once an ordinary working Australian. Today he is a national media icon. In his own words “its been a long road. Its been a very interesting road.”
Terry Hicks has learnt through painful experience that the media are not to be trusted. Since he became unintentionally famous due to his son’s detainment at Guantanamo Bay he has felt betrayed and used by various corporate media personnel and offended by their dehumanizing of David.
“I think the media have got to start really getting their story right instead of what I call demonizing,” Terry said to Actively Radical TV on the day David arrived back in Adelaide.
Terry and his wife Bev have never claimed David’s innocence nor do they think he should receive any special treatment. The only justice they seek is for David to be treated the same way as anyone accused of a crime and for him to have his day in an Australian court. Terry is not too hopeful about his happening.
“I’ve said from the start that if David has broken any Australian law or whatever then he (should go) through a due process of law, same as anybody else. If he’s found guilty under a proper court system we accept that but at this point in time we’re still waiting for so-called due process of law. It’s not going to happen.”
At a press conference in Sydney on Saturday 19th May, the eve of David’s return to Australia, Terry was lucid and witty but always with his defenses up. The corporate media reporters got their sound grabs and visuals and hurried off back to base to be the first with the story about the return of “Australia’s most notorious criminal” as David has been labeled by channel 10. Terry jokes that Australia’s most notorious criminal is about to lose the next federal election.
After the press have got the minimal amount of information they need for their editors Terry escapes the building and joins Craig Bulley of Worker’s Radio Sydney and myself for a cigarette and a candid chat. He tells us that he was invited to appear on Channel 7’s Sunrise the following day but had declined because of the early time slot and also to honour a commitment he made to community broadcaster Actively Radical TV in Sydney. The Sunrise representative he had spoken to couldn’t believe that he would choose a small local station over the powerhouse breakfast show. He responded simply with “it’s too early… End of story” and hung up on her. Only minutes later another Sunrise staffer was on the phone apologizing but Terry sees this as a ploy to keep him onside in case he remains newsworthy and they need him again.
A journalist who had gained Terry’s trust over a period of time committed a major betrayal, one that Terry will never forget. She had asked for the contact details for one of David’s friends. Terry obliged assuming that she was an ethical reporter whom he could vouch for. Later Terry received an irate phone call from David’s friend who was horrified that the reporter had not only printed his home address but had also included a photograph of his wife after he specifically asked for her not to be shown.
Terry lights another cigarette before he has to follow the press conference with a talk for the Stop the War Coalition. In his eyes you can see great sadness and anger. Hurt tears well as he mentions a journalist he met with recently who called him a “bad father”. While he acknowledges that life involves mistakes, big ones in David’s case, and there is nothing a parent can do to stop their sons or daughters living their own life, you can tell by those big blue eyes that some level of parental guilt still tortures him. He has forgiven David. Now all he has to do is forgive himself.
