Social media not the place to lay low

A person's nature - including sex offending or violence towards women - doesn't go away completely. FILE PHOTO

Among my journalism colleagues there is some debate over whether it's time to forgive and forget with sportscaster Tony Veitch.

Veitch caused a stir this month when he posted a picture after an All Blacks' match against France showing referee Nigel Owens, with the words: "Not a punch just a push of the fist."

Veitch added the comment: "Haha still don't get it ..."

Social media reacted in outrage, with posters recalling that Veitch pleaded guilty in 2009 to a charge of injuring his partner with reckless disregard.

Every journalist encounters this situation of a person's past, and how far it should intrude into a person's current circumstances - especially in terms of being reported on. Arguably, Veitch has served his sentence and has gone on to live a blameless life, and has reinvented himself in sports broadcasting.

The same could be said of a sex offender or a murderer, or someone who had crashed his car, killing someone else.

But what has to be considered - and social media demonstrates this well - is society is capable of a moral and honest indignation against people who don't appear to have learned from the past.

If you commit a crime, do your time and bugger off to live a worthwhile life without doing something inappropriate, then you are entitled to live without scrutiny from the public and media. I'm not a fan of people posting notices of "the sex offender in your neighbourhood" because convicted sex offenders have to live somewhere.

But if a convicted boy racer, who has injured someone, goes out and buys another hot rod five years later, society will react with indignation because it appears that person has not learned from the punishment.

It's a basic truth that the best way to escape scrutiny is to keep your head down and watch what you say. Because it is also often the case that a person's nature - including sex offending or violence towards women - doesn't go away completely.

A judge may have sentenced you, and you might have served your time, but society is watching - and will judge you again.