Adjudication No. 11 (May 1977) [1977] APC 6

ADJUDICATION No. 11 (May 1977)

The Press Council received a complaint against the Sydney Sun of February 11, 1977 about a prominent heading relating to a letter to the editor. The letter criticised a Mrs. Franca Arena as having intended to organise republican demonstrations during the Queen's visit and it added that the writer of the letter felt personally insulted.

This letter was included with others in a part of the paper headed generally "YOUR SAY", and if it had not been for the added heading it might have been discounted as only an impression of the writer's personal opinion.

The added heading, however, stated: "Activist insulting Australia"; and it was accompanied by a picture of Mrs. Arena.

Mrs. Arena was overseas. Her husband wrote the editor a letter of denial and protest and this letter the paper published on February 16, 1977, with deletion of an assertion that the headline was a fabrication and distortion. Another letter defending Mrs. Arena was published the same day. Three letters in support of Mrs. Arena were also published on February 15, 1977.

The complaint is that although these letters as a whole fairly put both sides of the story, the paper's own heading, Activist insulting Australia, was damaging to Mrs. Arena and was never apologised for.

In the Council's opinion the paper, having in its headline misstated the tenor of the original letter and offered readers its own accusation of Mrs. Arena as an activist insulting Australia, should have published a clear apology.

For its failure to do so the paper is open to serious criticism.

The complaint is upheld.