Aboriginal Law Bulletin --- "The Australian Press Council" [1985] AboriginalLawB 79; (1985) 1(17) Aboriginal Law Bulletin 11

• The Australian Press Council
• The Press Council
• Complaints Procedure
• Complaints And Corresponence

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The Australian Press Council

Have you got any complaints about the content, style or allegation of a newspaper or an article in a paper?

Have you read a newspaper that has not had due respect for private rights?

Has a newspaper or journalist obtained a 'story'by dishonesty, unfairly or by a breach of confidence?

If you answer 'yes' to any of the above contact The Australian Press Council and make a formal complaint (see complaints procedure below).

The Press Council

'The Press Council is a body consisting of representatives of the Press and the public, set up and paid for by the newspaper industry to help achieve a better industry and to promote good relations between the industry and the public.'

The above is a quote from the Press Council's booklet 'Aims, Principles and Constitution'.

The Council was established along a liberal democratic perspective and its principles show this:

• The freedom of the Press to publish is the freedom of the people to be informed.

• This is the justification for upholding the freedom (of the press) as an essential feature of a democratic society.

• That freedom is more fundamentally important by reasons of the obligations it entails towards the people than by reason of the rights it gives to the press.

• Recognising this ttieAustralian Press Council, in dealing with complaints that newspapers have failed to observe proper standards of journalism, will treat the public interest as the first and dominant consideration.

These principles are in themselves worthy ones, which should be pursued.

The Council with its members from the publishers, Australian Journalists' Association and public representatives is an industry self-regulating body, set-up by newspaper proprietors, comparable to the body which controls, the standards of television advertisements. This self regulation, which is not enforceable by law or supported by legislation, is sometimes critised as a clearing house that defuses or exuses Instead of policing journalistic standards.

In terms of numbers on the council there is: the Chair, Justice Hal Wootten; seven publishers' reps; three AJA reps and four public reps.

There are no 'Murdoch press' representatives since that organisation left the Council in 1980 after being an original member in 1976. The Fairfax organisation only recently joined the Council in 1982.

One of the public representatives is Mr Colin Bourke a policy adviser in the Department of Aboriginal Affairs, while another is Mr David Flint a Senior Lecturer in Law at the NSW Institute of Technology.

One major analysis of the press, written by Keith Windshuttte in 1984, The Media, recommends that 'individuals who have genuine complaints about the press are still better off going to the law courts in defamation suits.' However, the cost and effort involved in this recommendation is only an option for the well off. It could be hoped that with Hal Wootten as Chair, Aboriginal complaints would receive more understanding and consideration due to the Judge's long association with the Aboriginal people, in particular his role in assisting the establishment of the Aboriginal Legal Service in Redfern.

The options are to ignore 'bad press', take it to court and write a letter to the editor or the Press Council. While mass media ownership, control and production in Ausiralia is in the hands of only a few, who happen to be non-Aboriginal men, the Aboriginal community and their supporters must pursue those avenues which are open.

Complaints Procedure

1. Take cutting or photocopy of the material to which you object, mark the publication date and side-line the passages about which you complain.
Attach an explanation of the reasons for your complaint. Provide additional material if required, possible or desirable.

2. If the complaint is made more than four (4) months after publication of the material, explain whythe delay occurred.

3. It is probably necessary to obtain the more detailed complaints procedure pamphlet, the Press Council's latest Annual Report and a copy of the Council's 'Aims, Principles and Constitution', before actually sending off your complaint. This will ensure you have taken all the appropriate steps and will be prepared for any return inquiry, statement or acknowledgement.

4. Post or deliver to the noted address.

Complaints and Corresponence

Executive Secretary
Suite 303, Anzac House
26-36 CollegeStreet
Darlinghurst NSW 2010
telephone: [phone]