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Australian Press Council Update |
APC UPDATE | 8 April 2013
The Australian Press Council has considered a complaint about a report in the Milton-Ulladulla Times of the launch of an autism support group.
The article named a child and described him as autistic. The child’s parents complained that the newspaper had not checked with them whether their child was autistic or sought their consent to name him. The Council recognised that the newspaper intended to support a community initiative and that it had relied on comments from a source who described herself as a "close friend" of the child's mother. But it considered the publication should have confirmed the child’s condition with the parents and obtained their consent to publish the information. Accordingly, the complaint was upheld. Read the full adjudication.
The Australian Press Council has upheld a complaint about part of a report in the online version of The Daily Telegraph of comments by the head of the European Commission at the G20 Summit in 2012.
The article was headed “PM Julia Gillard 'slapped down' at G20 summit by the President of the European Commission Jose Manuel Barroso” and the opening sentence said: "The PM has been publicly slapped down at the G20 summit by the President of the European Commission for lecturing Europe on how to solve its economic crisis.” The following sentence referred to “an embarrassing swipe at the PM”.
The Council considered part of Mr Barroso’s comments may have been a veiled reference to Ms Gillard amongst other leaders. But his words were too measured, and their target or targets were too vague, to be accurately reported as a public slap down of her. That description conveys a sense of public, vigorous and directed criticism which he did not make and which, if he had done so, would have been of much greater diplomatic significance. Read the full adjudication.
The Australian Press Council has considered a complaint about a report in The Australian online headed "Europe won't be 'lectured' by Julia Gillard, EC chief Jose Manuel Barroso has said". The second sentence under the headline put the word “lectured” in double inverted commas.
The Council has concluded that the words “has said” and the single inverted commas around the word ‘lectured’ in the headline, along with the double inverted commas around the word “lectured” in the article itself, incorrectly indicated that Mr Barroso had actually used the word “lectured”. The relevant transcript shows that although he said the EU was “certainly not coming here to receive lessons from nobody” he did not use the word “lectured” and did not mention Ms Gillard or Australia.
The Council has frequently emphasised the importance of accuracy in the use of quotations. Accordingly, the complaint was upheld. Read the full adjudication.
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URL: http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/journals/AUPressClUpdate/2013/2.html