Adjudication No. 10 (April 1977) [1977] APC 5

ADJUDICATION No. 10 (April 1977)

Mrs. Shirley Bale, the president of the Federal Women's Council of the National Country Party, complained to the Australian Press Council of a report published in the Brisbane Courier-Mail on November 24, 1976, based upon a statement by her which had been made in the form of a Press release.

The full text of the press release was available to the paper before the publication and it was amplified in a 10-minute telephone conversation between Mrs. Bale and a reporter.

The report published was given a heading in large type and in quotation marks "Put Women in Rightful Place" and it stated that "the women of the National Party in Queensland wanted Australian women out of the offices and factories and back into their 'rightful places' - in the kitchens and bedrooms".

There was nothing in the press release to justify this statement- The reporter, a journalist of long experience, said before the Complaints Committee that he put questions referring to women's rightful place as the kitchen and the bedroom, and that Mrs. Bale assented to these questions. He produced no confirmatory evidence.

She denied that these questions were asked or assented to, and the Complaints Committee accepted her evidence The reporter further stated that he intended the questions referring to the bedroom to indicate only the task of bed-making, but that was certainly not the implication cf the article as published.

On November 25, 1976, the paper published a cartoon showing a woman in bed being brought breakfast by her husband, and this added derision to the insult of the unjustified report of the previous day.

On December 6, 1976, The Courier-Mail published a letter from Mrs. Bale denying the correctness of the report of November 24, but this appeared without editorial comment among a number of other letters to the editor and was obviously not sufficient to remove the impression which the article and the cartoon must have created in the minds of readers.

The Press Council is of opinion that The Courier-Mail fell gravely short of the standard of journalism which the Press of Australia ought to maintain.

It censures The Courier-Mail accordingly.