Following the recent genuine and heartfelt apology by young Australian tennis player Daria Gavrilova, I wrote this piece for the Drum that explores how public apologies are usually so unsatisfactory.

All too often the public apology has been generated to an apparent template by a publicist and appears to be crafted to ensure that the perpetrator takes on as little responsibility or blame for their actions as possible whilst fulfilling the minimum public expectation for a display of remorse.

I’m sure that the publicists think that it is all very clever, but I actually believe that these “I’m sorry that you got offended” type non-apologies at best do nothing to rectify the original offence and could even make the situation worse.

In my article in the Drum, I highlight some recent bad examples as well as try to explain what I believe a real apology should deliver.

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