Adjudication No. 59 (June 1979) [1979] APC 12

ADJUDICATION No. 59 (June 1979)

The Parole Board of South Australia has complained to the Australian Press Council about an article in The News, Adelaide, of February 6, 1979. The article had a prominent headline, "Parole Bungle", and it recounted in some detail circumstances of a case in which the Parole Board had allowed parole to a person who had committed a great number of serious offences and had been deported.

At first the paper published a statement that Interpol was hunting a convicted child molester wanted on 300 counts who "was released and deported by the South Australian Parole Board". In fact, the deportation was not the act of the Parole Board and the paper in a subsequent edition on the same day altered the statement by setting out that Interpol was hunting a convicted child molester, "who was released by the South Australian Parole Board, and deported".

The complaint is that the statement that the deportation of the person concerned had been the act of the Parole Board was erroneous.

The Press Council notes that the statement of the paper that the deportation had been the act of the Parole Board was a mistake but that the mistake was corrected as soon as could reasonably have been expected.

In the circumstances the Council is of opinion that the complaint should be dismissed.